Mamman Khan

Mamman Khan was born to Mohammed Hanif on April 4, 1967 in the village of Bhadas, Ferozepur Jhirka. He completed high school at a small school in his hometown before enrolling in Civil Engineering at Bengaluru University, Karnataka in 1994. Mamman Khan also worked for DLF, a commercial real estate development company, for a while before launching a hugely successful construction supply firm.

Mamman Khan ran the Ferozepur Jhirka Assembly elections independent in 2014 and was defeated by Naseem Ahmed by only 3,245 votes. Mamman Khan then won the Ferozepur Jhirka Assembly elections under the Indian National Congress by a margin of 37,004 votes against Naseem Ahmed. This landslide victory was attributed to a variety of factors, including Ahmed's transfer from the Indian National Lok Dal to the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is unpopular amongst the predominantly Muslim Meos inhabiting the region, as well as Mamman receiving the ticket from the Indian National Congress.[5]

When speaking in the Haryana Legislative Assembly in February 2023, Mamman Khan displayed photographs depicting acts of violence allegedly by the cow vigilante, Monu Manesar.

"This Monu Manesar got his pictures clicked with Amit Shah at one place, with Arun Jaitley at another. Does he want to scare the Mewatis by showing that he is a big man? If he dares visit Mewat again, he will be crushed like onions.” - Mamman Khan (Translated from Speech in Haryana's Legislative Assembly) [7]

This speech was not considered of any major significance until the 2023 Haryana Riots which took place in the Nuh district of Haryana, on 31 July 2023. During the riots, Mamman Khan was accused for instigating violence in the Nuh by the Home Minister of Haryana, Anil Vij.

“A sitting MLA of the Congress, Mamman Khan, has been given a notice by police to join the investigation. He will be questioned. The investigations, so far, have indicated that he was in contact with certain people who were involved in the violence,” - Anil Vij [8]

“It has also been found that violence took place at all such spots that were visited by Mamman Khan on July 28, 29, and 30. He made a post on his Facebook that read ‘I fought your fight in the Assembly also, and I am with you in this fight too’,” Vij had also said while talking to reporters. The Chief Minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar, also indirectly mentioned Mamman Khan when he said that “fingers are being pointed at some other Congress MLAs” in connection with the Nuh violence and added that absence of a response from the opposition party certainly proves that “something is suspicious".[8] A day before the violence in Nuh, it was also alleged that Mamman Khan had posted on ‘X’, formerly Twitter:

"The people of Mewat need not panic, fought for you in the assembly, will fight here too”. - Mamman Khan on X (formerly Twitter)

The tweet was deleted later. Mamman Khan was called in front of the Special Investigation Team for an investigation into his involvement in the 2023 Haryana Riots to the Nagina village police station in Nuh, Haryana. However, he failed to appear. The DSP of Ferozpur Jhirka and the head of the Special Investigation Team reportedly said that he would send Mamman Khan a notice again and call him to join the investigation.[9] After avoiding the team twice, Mamman Khan was eventually arrested on 15 September 2023 in Rajasthan and Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code for Unlawful assembly was applied to the Nuh District of Haryana on that day.[10] Mamman Khan was released on interim bail on October 3, 2023 and was then released on regular bail on October 18th 2023.[11][12]