Uttar Pradesh Police have arrested Rishabh Thakur, an alleged former Bajrang Dal member from Bareilly, on charges of extortion and violating his district exile order.
Thakur, who had been designated a jila badar (district exile) and declared a habitual offender by authorities, was apprehended on 24 February 2026 from the BDA Colony area in Bareilly’s Baradari zone, nearly two months after he led a mob that stormed a nursing student’s birthday party and assaulted two Muslim guests on 27 December 2025.
The Baradari police arrested Thakur on Monday afternoon based on an informant’s tip and have invoked the Goonda Control Act against him. A video now circulating on social media shows him visibly limping as he is taken into custody. While victim communities and civil society groups have welcomed the arrest, many are asking why it took authorities so long to act against someone whose record of unlawful conduct had been documented for years.
From Birthday Party Mob to Extortion Racket
Thakur first gained nationwide notoriety on 27 December 2025, when he led a group of 25 to 30 men who stormed Den Café and Restaurant in Bareilly’s Prem Nagar area, where a 20-year-old nursing student named Shivangi had organised a birthday party for her classmates. A group of six girls and four boys, two of whom were Muslim. The mob segregated guests by religion, asked Hindu students to step outside, and subjected the two Muslim students to slurs, accusations of “love jihad,” and a brutal physical assault involving slaps, kicks, and blows. Shivangi herself was not spared.
The incident was caught on video and went viral, forcing a course correction from the authorities. Bareilly SP (City) Manush Pareek told The Wire, “We have identified the people seen attacking inside the café and an FIR is being registered. We have sought a reply from the concerned SHO on why action was not taken against the accused.” Police filed FIR No. 532/2025 on 28 December 2025 under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including house trespass, voluntarily causing hurt, intentional insult, criminal intimidation, and rioting.
A departmental inquiry was also initiated against the local SHO, and police confirmed that “claims of love jihad were found to be untrue.” The fresh arrest on 24 February 2026, however, stems from a separate extortion case. An audio recording had gone viral in which Thakur allegedly demanded ₹40,000 from the operator of a spa center, exploiting a viral video of that establishment to threaten and extort the owner. A case was then registered against Thakur and four others on a complaint filed by the spa center operator, after which he was tracked down and arrested.
A History of Impunity and a Brazen Defiance of the Law
The case against Rishabh Thakur is not simply about one violent evening or one extortion call. His Instagram profile, where he identified himself as a Gau Rakshak (cow vigilante) associated with the Bajrang Dal, documents years of vigilante activity, ambushing interfaith couples, filming them without consent, and physically assaulting them even when they pleaded to be left alone. Fact-checker Mohammed Zubair had flagged this pattern as early as 2023, noting that had police taken strict action against Thakur then, “they wouldn’t have dared to repeat this now.”
After the birthday party attack, rather than turning himself in, Thakur released a video from an undisclosed location openly threatening the police. In the video, he can be heard saying, “If the police think they can mess with us, they’re out of their minds. Whoever messed with us before has never been heard from again.” He also appealed to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for “uchit karwaye” (appropriate action), claiming he had done nothing wrong.
Meanwhile, Bajrang Dal’s Bareilly Mahanagar Convenor Ketanand Gaud had publicly stated that Thakur was expelled from the organisation on 14 December 2025 and that any controversy arising from his actions “will have no connection whatsoever with Bajrang Dal.” Yet Thakur was seen participating in a Bajrang Dal rally on 15 December: the very day after his supposed expulsion, raising serious doubts about the sincerity of that distancing.
His eventual arrest also comes in the broader context of rising vigilante violence across the state. In a separate incident from Budaun, timestamped 15 February 2026, a person allegedly affiliated with a Hindutva outfit named Akshay Thakur was filmed assaulting elderly Muslim men and forcing them to remove their caps. Police arrested him following public outrage.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
The arrest of Rishabh Thakur is, without doubt, a necessary act of justice, but it is also a damning commentary on how long that justice took. For years, videos of this man intimidating couples, assaulting young people, and extorting business owners circulated freely. His crimes were not secret; they were celebrated on his own social media pages. It took a birthday party attack going viral, sustained public outrage, and an extortion audio clip to finally bring him in.
When someone accused of serious offences openly threatens law enforcement on camera and walks free for weeks, it does not just embolden one individual, it signals to entire communities that certain people operate above the law. That signal is corrosive to the very idea of a just and equal republic. True harmony between communities is not built on silence or fear; it is built on the quiet confidence that every citizen, regardless of religion, can celebrate a birthday, walk hand-in-hand with a partner, or run a small business without being terrorised.
Finally, Uttar Pradesh Police has arrested alleged Bajrang Dal member Rishab Thakur.
— Team Rising Falcon (@TheRFTeam) February 24, 2026
He was reportedly involved in extortion and in harassing Muslims and couples while posing as a Hindutva leader.
Authorities have taken him into custody, and a video has now surfaced showing him… pic.twitter.com/O2s4Z1z8n8
