Rape threats, hate speech, and land disputes: The many crimes of Bajrang Muni Das

Eleven days after a video of his went viral for publicly threatening to kidnap and rape Muslim women, Bajrang Muni Das, the saffron-clad man, was arrested by the police from Sitapur, 100 km from Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow.The mahant of Maharshi Shri Lakshman Das Udasin Ashram in Khairabad town of Sitapur had gone viral on 2 April when he allegedly made a hate speech against Muslims.The comments in the video drew flak from netizens across the board as well as the National Commission of Women. In one of the videos, he can be seen telling a group of people, “I am telling this to you (Muslims) with love that if a single Hindu girl is teased by you in Khairabad, I will openly bring your daughters and daughter-in-laws out of your home and rape them.”The Commission had demanded that he be arrested, saying the authorities couldn't be mute spectators to such comments.Who is he?A native of Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh district, it has been reported that Bajrang Muni Das, formerly called Anupam Mishra, is a son of a former sub-inspector in the Madhya Pradesh Police.Not much of his past antecedents is known, but Dainik Bhaskar reports that he claims to have graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree and worked for Jet Airways before he decided to dedicate his life for 'working for the religion'.It is unknown how he became the chief priest or mahant of the Maharshi Shri Lakshman Das Udasin Ashram in the Khairabad area.The mahant has a history of issuing hate speeches and threats to the minority communities. In 2021, he made the news when he was embroiled in land disputes.As per an Indian Express report, Saket Mishra, who lost from the Sitapur Sadar seat in the recent Assembly elections, says that locals have filed several complaints against Bajrang Muni, accusing him of threatening them and harassing them with false allegations, and of grabbing their land.In fact, one of the disputes in 2021 was when his supporters got into an altercation with a group of Muslims over the possession of some land near the ashram. It turned into a brawl, resulting in injuries on both sides. Bajrang Muni Das was then admitted to hospital from where he accused the circle officer, City of Sitapur, Piyush Kumar Singh, of plotting his murder.In October 2021, Bajrang threatened to kill himself outside the chief minister's office in Lucknow claiming that police wanted to bump him off.The mahant has more than one case filed against him — there’s a case of hate speech also registered against him.A look at the mahant’s timeline on Twitter also shows that he has shared a poem glorifying the murderers committed by Dara Singh.Prior to the Supreme Court’s judgment on the Babri Masjid-Ram Temple case in 2019, Bajrang Muni had called for violence and murder, saying that peaceful ways hadn’t worked and that is why the Hindus had to pick up weapons for the construction of the Ayodhya temple.In the past too, he has called for violence for the construction of the Ram Temple.Besides this, he has also called Haridwar Dharma Sansad hate speech accused Yati Narsinghanand his idol.With inputs from agenciesRead all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.