Jalandhar: The tragic death of Punjabi singer-actor Rajvir Jawanda in a road crash involving stray cattle has sparked outrage and raised questions over road safety, the cow cess collected from people in the name of protecting cows and the role of cow ‘vigilante’ groups who claim to protect cows from people.

Jawanda, an avid biker, was hit by two stray cattle while driving down the Baddi-Pinjore highway in Pinjore in the Panchkula district of Haryana. He breathed his last on October 8 after remaining on life support for 12 days. The accident occurred on September 27, 2025 while the singer was driving to Shimla with fellow bikers.

What has shocked and outraged people is that despite being a religio-political subject for all parties, particularly the ruling Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-Bharatiya Janata Party (RSS-BJP) combine, and collecting crores of funds as “cow cess” from ordinary consumers, the governments of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana have failed to address the stray cattle menace. These state governments levy a cow cess on liquor, cement, automobiles, electricity, among other items.

After Jawanda’s death, Chandigarh-based advocate Navkiran Singh of Lawyers for Human Rights International (LHRI) has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the stray cattle menace in the Himachal Pradesh high court, while farmer body Bharatiya Kisan Union (Shaheed Bhagat Singh) held a tribute march in his memory in Ambala on October 15 and made several demands of the state government.

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had, during a road safety event held in Lucknow last year, shared India’s grim record in road accident deaths: with over 1.72 lakh deaths reported in 2023, it was at the top of the global fatality list. He had said that, on average, 474 people were killed in road accidents every day – one person dead every three minutes.

Gadkari had proposed ‘Bahu Balli’ cattle fences along highways to block stray cattle’s access to roads and highways. But that plan never really took off.

‘System failed Rajvir Jawanda’

Chandigarh-based road safety expert Harman Sidhu, founder of the NGO Arrive SAFE, said that stray cattle is a big contributing factor in fatal road crashes, apart from other flaws in road safety measures.

“It is the governance system that failed Rajvir Jawanda,” he said.

Jawanda followed all safety protocols, including wearing a helmet and biker’s suit, while he rode a bike. “It was stray bulls, that were fighting, that hit him, leading to grievous spinal cord and neck injuries. Stray cattle has proved fatal in numerous road crashes, but nothing has moved governments,” Sidhu said.

Sidhu himself was in a road crash in 1996 that left him wheelchair bound. He, too, cites the road transport ministry’s data from 2023, that every three minutes an Indian dies on a road.

What is worse, he points out, in Rajvir’s case, the ‘golden’ post-trauma hour was missed, which left him in a critical condition, struggling to survive for eleven days before ultimately succumbing to injuries.

Also read: Will a Cow Surcharge in Rajasthan Protect Cattle or the BJP Government?

“It is unclear if he was given mandatory care for his serious injuries during his transit to different hospitals,” Sidhu said. He believes that careful attention in the initial hour after his accident might have helped save him.

In the future, Sidhu said, that the government must geotag stray cattle, so that cattle shed owners and committees could be held accountable for such tragedies. He emphasised that as a precedent, the concerned officials of local bodies should be held accountable in Jawanda’s case.

Crucially, advocate Navkiran’s PIL also states that Jawanda’s accident occurred on the outskirts of Pinjore in Haryana – not in Himachal Pradesh, as the media initially reported. He said the Daily Dairy Report – a chronological log of all key events at a thana – of the Pinjore Police station reveals that Jawanda was not provided medical aid at the JN Shory Multispecialty Hospital in Pinjore, located a stone’s throw from the accident site. That led to him being moved to the Civil Hospital in Panchkula.

Still later, he was taken to Paras Hospital, also in Panchkula, and from there to Fortis Hospital in Mohali, where he succumbed to his injuries.

Navkiran, who visited the accident site in Pinjore said that his outfit would move the Punjab and Haryana high court regarding alleged medical negligence that may have proved fatal in Jawanda’s case.

The singer’s close friends in the Punjabi music industry also blame the government and the system for having snuffed out a precious life.

In an emotional message to the media, prominent singer Resham Singh Anmol asked forgiveness of Jawanda, saying he fell prey to ‘the system’. “Someone should be held accountable for this tragedy,” he said, adding, “We pay huge toll taxes and road taxes, but can governments not arrange basic measures to book guilty officials? The number of people dying in road accidents are far higher than those who died in the world war.”

Around ten crore people died in the ten years of the great war and the second world war. Between 2004 and 2024, around 30 lakh people died simply by being on Indian roads.

Another Punjabi singer, Ravinder Grewal, said, “Rajvir was riding his bike with full safety measures, but stray cattle claimed his life. The media should question the politicians about what they are doing with the taxpayers money.”

Crores collected in cow cess

Nearly all north Indian states, including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh levy a cow cess, which is a kind of tax on tax, on luxury (and non-luxury) items and services but the problem of stray cattle persists.

In Chandigarh, a Union Territory, the administration raised the cow cess on vehicle registrations, liquor and electricity in June. A Rs 1,000 cow cess is levied on the registration of four wheelers in Chandigarh municipal corporation limits under the Punjab Prohibition of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955 – double the earlier Rs 500 cess.

The Chandigarh administration charges a six paise cow cess on electricity – triple the earlier 2 paise per unit. But while government departments collect what citizens are asked to pay, it is unclear what the municipal corporation is doing to manage cow sheds in the area.

The Haryana Cow Service Commission established under section 3 of the Haryana State Gau Seva Act, 2010, is supposed to promote the welfare of cows and to prevent the slaughter of or cruelty towards cows. Between January and March 2025, it claims, 3,69,799 heads of cattle were sent to 605 registered cattle sheds in different districts and allocated a grant in aid of Rs 66.90 crore. A grant in aid does not have to be repaid, unlike a loan, nor is ‘creditworthiness’ a factor in making grants.

Also read: Allahabad HC Raps UP Police Over ‘Frivolous’ Use of Cow Slaughter Act, Vigilantism

Advocate Navkiran has raised questions in his PIL over the collection and utilisation of this cow cess. Elaborating on the concern, he said that the Himachal Pradesh government also levies a Rs 10 cow cess on each liquor bottle sold and also charges a cess on electricity bills, under the Himachal Pradesh Electricity (Duty) Amendment Bill, 2024.

(It is learnt that there are 276 cow shelters and cow sanctuaries with 21,306 abandoned cattle in Himachal Pradesh.)

Similarly, in Punjab, the Punjab Gau Seva Commission set up under an eponymous Act passed in 2014 levies a cow cess. This commission has constructed 524 cow shelters and 20 cattle pounds in the state.

An official requesting anonymity said: “Our task is to register cow shelters, while the onus of distributing the cow cess funds lies solely with the municipal corporations. Stray cattle are a major cause of accidents in the region but we do not have any powers to bring a policy change.”

Petition to reach Supreme Court

On October 10, the Himachal Pradesh high court sent a notice to the state government seeking its response to Navkiran Singh’s PIL, a comprehensive action plan to rehabilitate stray cattle, effective use of cow cess funds and stricter enforcement of road safety measures.

The PIL submits that the Himachal Pradesh government was collecting Rs 100 crore annually as cow cess, but it was not being properly utilised. “Rajvir Jawanda died because of stray cattle. The government has been collecting crores in the name of cow cess but it is people who were paying a price for such a lapse,” the lawyer said. “We will also take up the matter of stray cattle in the Supreme Court,” he added.

Meanwhile, Tejveer Singh Ambala, spokesperson of the BKU (Shaheed Bhagat Singh) said that it was shocking that, for a whole fortnight, nobody in Haryana even mentioned an accident that had occurred in Pinjore, which is in the state, and which a police station in Pinjore had recorded in its DDR. “It was the Himachal Pradesh government that was targeted for all these days,” he said.

The union has given the Haryana government an ultimatum to act against the stray cattle menace, failing which it would launch a significant protest. It has also demanded a Rs 10 lakh compensation for victims of accident caused due to stray cattle, apart from the state bearing their treatment cost and compensating for the damage to vehicles.

Notably, even in BJP-ruled Haryana, former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar launched a cow cess in May 2023. Since then, Haryana has levied a Rs 5 cow cess on every liquor bottle sold, to fund cow welfare and protect the environment.

Tejveer said, “The government’s target was to collect Rs 400 crore for cow welfare annually but stray cattle were still roaming on the roads and damaging farmers’ crops. We have held protests in the past too, but there is no clarity on what the government is doing with the cow cess funds.”

He said that in August, noted Punjabi singer Harbhajan Singh Mann also had a narrow escape while returning from a show in Delhi, when a stray cow came in front of his car in Kurukshetra in Haryana on National Highway 44. The singer and his crew had sustained minor injuries.

“When it comes to cow vigilantism, Haryana’s BJP government and fringe groups are the first ones to protest, but they go silent when accidents take place because of stray cattle,” he said.

‘People should not hurt Hindu sentiments’ 

Responding to queries from The Wire, Sachin Sharma, chairman of the Chandigarh Gau Seva Commission, blamed the excise department, the local bodies department and ‘marriage palaces’ for not collecting cow cess properly. He also put the onus on ordinary cattle owners.

“Cows are sacred in every religion,” he said. “It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that the cow cess is collected and allocated for the welfare of the stray cattle. However, when people do not leave the cattle in the sheds, it leads to accidents on the highways,” he added.

During his previous stint as chairman of the Gau Seva Commission, Punjab, he had suggested building cow shelters under the Public Private Partnership model and geotagging stray cattle. “Such measures are important to curb accidents because of stray cattle,” he said.

Similarly, BJP leader and president of Hindu Jagriti Manch in Jalandhar, Mandeep Bakshi, accused Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema for diverting cow cess funds and not utilising it for the welfare of stray cattle.

“Had the Aam Aadmi Party government utilised the cow cess properly, the potential danger of road accidents could have been reduced,” he said.

Also read: Laws Prohibiting Cow Slaughter Are Creating Both Vigilantes and Victims

Bakshi, a vocal cow protection and Hindu rights activist, said a stringent law is required – and that people should be charged under section 307 of the Bharatiya Nyay Samhita (new name for the Indian penal code) against those who leave their cattle to stray. Section 307 in the old law dealt with the punishment for murder, and now deals with “theft after preparing to cause death”.

When asked why BJP-affiliated groups actively pursue cow ‘vigilantism’ but go missing when it comes to the stray cattle menace, Bakshi said, “I agree that there is a delayed response from our side but we are equally pained over Rajvir Jawanda’s death.”

As a Sanatan Dharma follower and a Gau Sanrakshak, Bakshi said, they too will petition the high court asking where Punjab’s cow cess funds were going.

Bakshi said there should be “no politics” over the singer’s death and that people should not hurt the religious sentiments of the Hindus. “There is a deliberate attempt to defame Sanatan Dharma and the Hindu religion in the issue of stray cattle, which is wrong,” he claimed.

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