Shafaqna Pakistan: An Indian judge has received death threats and faced a wave of online abuse after sentencing 14 men described as “cow vigilantes” to life imprisonment for the lynching of a man.
Tabassum Khan, a judge in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, convicted the 14 men on June 12 of charges including murder, rioting and wrongful restraint.
Since delivering the verdict, Khan, who is Muslim, has been subjected to online criticism and allegations that her decision was influenced by the religious identities of the convicted men, amid heightened communal tensions in India.
According to reports, the backlash has extended beyond social media to public protests, prompting the Madhya Pradesh High Court to direct police to provide security for the judge.
The case relates to an incident in 2022, when a 50-year-old man called Nazir Ahmad was killed while he was transporting cattle.
Ahmad was attacked by a group of men, who described themselves as “gau rakshaks” or cow protectors, armed with sticks and rods.
Cows are considered sacred by many Hindus, and roughly 20 states strictly regulate or ban their slaughter.
The self-styled vigilantes accused Ahmad of smuggling the animals at night, dragged him from his vehicle and attacked him, the court was told.
He later died of his injuries, but his two companions survived. Ms Khan’s judgment described the attack as a clear example of mob lynching.
Protests against the verdict began almost as soon as the men were convicted. Local media said their families gathered outside the courtroom in an attempt to prevent the police from taking the men to prison, arguing they had been punished for “saving cows”.
The judiciary has rallied around Ms Khan, warning that criticism based on faith undermines democratic institutions.
Markandey Katju, a former supreme court judge, said on X that the videos and protests are an attempt to delegitimise Ms Khan.
He wrote: “Her Muslim identity became the principal basis upon which the legitimacy of the judgment was questioned. This represented a dangerous inversion of justice.
“Judicial decisions are meant to be evaluated through legal reasoning, not through the religious identity of the individual delivering them.”
Source: The News
