07.11.2024
1 min
847
Self-proclaimed “cow protectors” in India are increasingly carrying out nighttime attacks on Muslims under the guise of combating “illegal cattle trafficking.” Our investigation shows how religious fanaticism, government support, and Instagram are transforming atrocities into a system.
They call themselves “cow protectors,” or “gau rakshaks” in Hindi. On social media, they often post about charitable work, such as running ambulances for sick or injured cows, feeding stray animals, and distributing food to people.
But in the dark of night, their work takes on a more brutal tone. Numerous photos and videos show members of “cow protector” groups chasing, shooting, and beating truck drivers who, they say, are “smuggling” cows to slaughter.
Cows are considered sacred in Hinduism, India’s dominant religion. Many states in the country ban the slaughter of cows and have strict laws on the transportation, sale and purchase of cattle. These laws have become stricter since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014.
Attackers on truckers are usually closely linked to radical Hindu nationalist organizations, and most of their victims are Muslims. And while they claim to be doing it for the cows, some videos also show animals being hit by vehicles that overturn during aggressive chases.
Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said that cow protection has become part of the political agenda of BJP leaders, and in some cases they have supported the alleged actions of suspects “while the police have failed to take action against them.”
Alt News found videos on social media showing brutal attacks by members of five self-proclaimed animal protection groups, mostly operating in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, where cow-related violence has been frequently reported.
Some of the leaders of these vigilante groups, when contacted, claimed that they work closely with the local police. One of them even received an award for “cow and social service” from a cabinet minister along with police officers. Senior police officers from the areas where these groups operate did not respond to questions about alleged police support for cow vigilantes when contacted.
While these groups likely represent only a small fraction of the “cow vigilantes” in India that have been reported by the media and human rights groups in the country for years, our investigation sheds more light on how they informally collaborate to perpetrate mob violence against truck drivers.
A video uploaded in February of this year shows several men in cars chasing a truck down a highway at night. A man in one of the cars pulls out a shotgun and shoots at the truck. Police sirens can be heard in the background, but law enforcement officers do not appear to intervene.
The Akhil Bharatiya Gau Seva Samiti (ABGS), which uploaded the video of the car chase, is a trust – a non-profit organization (NGO) set up to promote charitable activities. According to the Indian government’s database of non-profit organizations, it was founded in 2022. ABGS is based in Vrindavan, Mathura district, Uttar Pradesh.
While its day job may seem like “animal protection,” videos of its members terrorizing truck drivers at night are commonplace and are often promoted by the trust itself.
In November 2024, ABGS president Bharat Gautam shared a post showing a wrecked car with a signboard reading “Akhil Bhrataiya Gau Seva Samiti” on the roof, after what he called a “tough encounter with cow smugglers” in Hindi.
Alt News spoke to Gautam, who said that cows in Hinduism are “not animals” but mother figures.
Gautam claimed that his team works closely with the Vrindavan police to save cows from being slaughtered for meat. “We either give the information we get [about cattle trucks] to the police and they accompany us in our pursuit, or we patrol areas where we know that cow smugglers are frequent,” he said, adding that the police register cases against drivers based on complaints filed by his team after the vehicle is caught. Alt News’ multiple calls to the Vrindavan police station’s general line, as well as to the direct lines of senior police officials in the district, seeking comment on ABGS’s claims, went unanswered.
“We are helping the administration, but they cannot do everything, so it is our duty to protect our religion, our mother, too,” Gautam said.
However, videos released by his team show that the cows they are supposedly saving are often injured during the chases. For example, a video from February last year shows a pickup truck overturning, apparently as a result of the chase, causing the cattle inside to fall onto the road. The video shows three men sitting on the ground, looking badly injured, and several people beating them as they pose for photos. Meanwhile, cows are seen sprawled on the side of the road, also apparently injured.
Gautam’s team operates in Uttar Pradesh, one of at least 20 of India’s 28 states that have a partial or complete ban on cow slaughter and beef sales. When asked by Alt News about his team’s use of violence, Gautam blamed the truck drivers. “Cow smugglers are coming up against our vehicles… shooting at us,” he said.
ABGS is headquartered at the Venkatesh temple in Vrindavan. When Alt News contacted the temple, they said they had no connection with the group. “We just rent out the premises,” a temple official said.
Gautam told Alt News that the temple does offer some support to his team, including human resources and financial assistance. But he claimed that most of their work was self-funded and denied receiving any government assistance or donations, despite the foundation appealing for donations on social media.
His “cow protection” work has also earned him recognition from the Uttar Pradesh government. In January last year, he received an award for “cow protection and social service” from the state cabinet minister. He was felicitated in the presence of the Mathura district magistrate, who is responsible for maintaining law and order in the district, and the Mathura police.
Numerous calls to senior police officers in Mathura district went unanswered, or officers did not comment on the Mathura police’s relationship with Gautam and whether they supported the cow vigilantism.
While ABGS’s vigilante activities have been particularly visible on social media, our investigations have revealed that it is part of a network of local groups based in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. In a video uploaded on June 27, Gautam says that cow vigilantes have been operating under the leadership of a certain “Sonu Hindu Palwal” for the past five years.
In March, videos released by ABGS and several associated anti-cow crime groups show cars chasing a truck and two men being brutally beaten and pushed.
Bellingcat geo-located the incident near a police station in Bera, Haryana, based on trees, lampposts and a temple visible in one of the videos, which was posted by a member of “Team Sonu Hindu Palwal.”
The location coincides with reports of an attack in Behra on March 9, where eight men were arrested after a police officer at the scene filed a complaint. The officer’s complaint said the mob shouted “We will not leave you Muslims alive today” as they beat up two men from a truck.
The man, who goes by only one name, Sonu – his official name in court documents – was among the eight arrested. He leads a team named after him, called the Sonu Hindu Palwal Team. Palwal is the district in Haryana where his team is mainly based.
Sonu said he is the Palwal district president of the Gau Raksha Dal (GRD) – literally “cow protection unit” – a non-profit organisation founded in 2012. GRD is one of the largest cow protection networks in India, and its leader told Human Rights Watch in 2017 that the network’s volunteers are present in almost every state.
When asked about the incident in Behra, Sonu said that while chasing the truck drivers, the truck collided with another car and the occupants of that car beat up the truck drivers. “We were blamed,” he said, even though members of his own team had posted the video of the attack.
Sonu was also shown several videos posted by anti-cow groups, including Team Bharat Gautam, that either tagged Team Sonu Hindu or mentioned them in the captions. The videos showed men surrounded by members of anti-cow groups who were beating them or otherwise abusing them. Sonu himself posed for a group photo in one of the videos, although he was not shown attacking anyone. When shown the videos, Sonu denied that his team had beaten people.
The leader of the cow vigilante group did not directly answer our questions about his thoughts on the violence perpetrated by his team members, but said, “Do whatever you want. Our job is to save cows, and we will continue to do that.”
The day after his arrest in Berea, videos of Sonu’s supporters celebrating his release began circulating on Instagram. He and other members of his team were paraded in a car with garlands around their necks, followed by a procession dancing to “Hindutva pop,” a genre of music associated with the Hindu far-right whose lyrics contain anti-Muslim rhetoric.
The men who were beaten by Sonu and his team in March were arrested after a counter-complaint was filed against them under the animal cruelty and cow protection laws.
When Alt News called the police station, the officers who responded did not seem to know whether the two men seen in the video as the victims of the attack were still in jail. One of them said the case had been transferred to the crime branch, but could not provide any information about the investigators.
However, the bail orders for the two beaten men, found on the Palwal district court website, indicated that each of them had spent at least two months in custody before being released on bail.
Alt News spoke to Sonu, who said his team receives tips from “informants” whenever cows are transported, obtaining information such as the vehicle’s route and license plate number.
According to Sonu, rescued cows are taken to shelters and the people transporting them are handed over to the police. He said that sometimes the police show up after the vehicle is intercepted, but in other cases, the police are with the gau rakshaks during these incidents.
Alt News’ questions to the additional superintendent of police in Palwal regarding Sonu’s claim that the police are accompanying his team in their pursuit of truck drivers went unanswered.
Bellingcat also uncovered links between Sonu’s team and a Mumbai-based charity through a photo Sonu posted of a large truck he described as “an ambulance for sick or injured cows in Palwal.” The vehicle has a Google Pay number listed on it for donations.
A sign on the ambulance says the service is “provided courtesy of” an organization called “Shri Mahesh Chandra Dalmia Charitable Trust,” which appears to be a misspelling of “Shri Mahesh Chandra Dalmia Charitable Trust,” a registered foundation based in Mumbai.
Sonu told Alt News that the Shri Mahesh Chandra Dalmia Charitable Trust supported his ambulance team after local priests in Vrindavan introduced the organization to his work.
According to the government’s database of nonprofit organizations, the trust works in sectors such as “Education and Literacy,” “Any Other,” and “Health and Family Welfare.” The trustee, or person running the trust, is listed as Satyadeo Banka.
Banka is regularly tagged on Facebook in videos of Sonu’s team attacking truck drivers. His posts on the platform also often promote ideas consistent with Hindutva, a nationalist ideology that advocates the creation of India as a Hindu nation-state.
We tried to reach Banka on social media, but received no response. Alt News reached out to the trust’s president, Rahul Dalmiya, by phone and sent him an email about his organization’s ties to Sonu Hindu Palwal’s team, asking if he was aware of the group’s violent activities and that Banka had been tagged in their “cow protection” videos. Dalmiya declined to be quoted when asked about the trust’s work over the phone, and had not responded to follow-up email questions about whether the trust was supporting law enforcement in any way by the time of publication.
In 2021, Sonu welcomed someone he called “Parveen LFN” for joining the Haryana government’s cow protection force in a Facebook post. LFN is an acronym for Live For Nation, a registered non-profit organization in Faridabad, Haryana, that aims to “save cows.” The group was also involved in a car chase last year that left a 20-year-old man dead.
On August 23, 2024, Aryan Mishra, 20, was riding in a car with friends when five cow vigilantes—all members of LFN—allegedly “mistaken” them for cattle smugglers and chased their car before opening fire. Mishra died in the incident.
One of the arrested accused, Anil Kaushik, reportedly told Mishra’s father that he considered the boy a Muslim and regretted killing a Brahmin, the highest caste in the Hindu caste system. Kaushik identified himself as a member of the Haryana government’s cow protection task force, which also includes Parveen.
His full name is Parveen Vashishth, and his Facebook bio lists him as a member of the Haryana government’s “special cow protection task force.” Vashishth also refers to the task force when sharing videos on Instagram of members of Team Sonu Hindu, a cow vigilante group, chasing trucks.
Alt News reached out to the Haryana Gau Seva Aayog, the government body responsible for overseeing the task force’s activities. Its chairman, Sharwan Garg, said that anyone can take up cow protection on their own, as long as they “follow the law and coordinate with the authorities.”
However, Vashishth’s Instagram videos, which show Team Sonu Hindu chasing trucks, shooting at them, and attacking drivers, suggest that these “restrictions” are often violated.
Another organization claiming to work on cow welfare and operating on the same network uploaded a video on January 9, 2025, showing vigilantes capturing a man they called a “cow smuggler.” In several of the videos, the man appears badly injured and bleeding. His car is also badly damaged.
The Gau Seva Mission is based in Vrindavan, like ABGS. Its leader, Govind Singh, is often seen in videos of attacks on alleged “cow smugglers” along with Bharat Gautam, Sonu, and Parveen Vashishth.
Singh told Alt News that he is a veterinarian by profession and covers most of the expenses of the Gau Seva Mission through his private work.
The Gau Seva Mission appears to be known to the Uttar Pradesh government. Last November, Singh uploaded photos and videos of the Uttar Pradesh government’s cattle commissioner visiting his office.
Singh told Alt News that he was previously a member of GRD, an NGO of which Sonu is a member, but left the organization to form his own group, although he did not say when this happened. One of Singh’s Facebook posts from three years ago listed the hotline number for the GRD Vrindavan branch – the same number is now the hotline number for the Gau Seva Mission. Its office was also located at the same address as the GRD Vrindavan branch, at least until March 2022, according to old images of the location on Singh’s Facebook account.
Another organization that claims to be an animal rights organization but whose leader has been implicated in cow-related violence is Gau Vansh Seva Dham in Faridabad, Haryana. It is run by Shiva Dahiya, who told Alt News that the group runs a hospital for cows.
Videos of injured cows being treated are posted on the organization’s Facebook page, and Gau Vansh Seva Dham regularly appeals for donations to support their rescue and relief efforts. Dahiya said that the money for his organization’s work is raised by the community.
Instagram posts tagged with Dahiya show him either participating in or being present at mob attacks on cattle transporters. For example, in one post from February, he is seen stopping a truck with spikes to puncture its tires. In another, he pulls the hair of a wounded man who lies hunched over so that his face is visible, while a group of vigilantes, including Sona, pose for a photo with several captured men.
However, when Alt News asked if the chases ever turned violent, Dahiya replied, “We don’t want to do anything bad with our own hands.” And when asked if he had ever done anything bad, he replied, “With God’s help, never.”
Dahiya denied any violence by the “cow protectors.”
“We never beat anyone,” he told Alt News.
