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The Madhya Pradesh High Court directed officials to explain measures taken to safeguard Additional District and Sessions Judge Tabassum Khan while ordering that her police protection continue, following a wave of online videos containing death threats and calls for violence unless the convicted men were released. Two individuals have been arrested in connection with the threats, according to the Hindustan Times, with police identifying them as Pankaj Kumar Mishra from Uttar Pradesh and Anuj Awasthi from Raebareli. The cyber cell continues to trace those responsible for sharing inflammatory content that targeted the judge’s Muslim identity rather than the legal basis of her June 12, 2026 verdict.
Khan convicted 14 men of murder, attempted murder, rioting and wrongful restraint for the August 2022 killing of truck driver Sheikh Lala Nazir Ahmed, who was transporting cattle when his vehicle was stopped near Barakhad village in Seoni Malwa. The court relied on medical evidence, forensic reports and recovered blood-stained weapons despite two eyewitnesses turning hostile during the trial, a Madhya Pradesh police statement detailed. The judgment explicitly described the assault as a case of mob lynching carried out by the group on suspicion of cow smuggling.
Protests erupted soon after the verdict with members of the Gau Raksha Parishad burning an effigy of the judge in Punjab on June 22, 2026, while the Rashtriya Bajrang Dal staged a demonstration in Uttar Pradesh three days later demanding the release of what they termed cow protectors. Videos circulating on social media included warnings of bloodshed across the country if the men were not freed within 10 days, the BBC reported. An anchor on the right-wing channel Sudarshan News expressed solidarity with the families and urged viewers to fight for those who had acted to save cows.
The Supreme Court Bar Association condemned the threats against Khan, with its president Vikas Singh stating that such actions represented a grave issue because the judiciary underpins democracy. Singh added that if threats are allowed then no judge will be able to dispense justice and that in a democracy a judge must perform their duty without fear or favour. The Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association issued a similar statement calling for action against those inciting hatred, according to reports from Live Law.
Cow-related violence has persisted in India with Human Rights Watch documenting at least 44 deaths, 36 of them Muslims, in such attacks between May 2015 and December 2018 across 12 states. A database maintained by the Documentation of the Oppressed recorded 206 acts of cow-related violence involving 850 victims, mainly Muslims, from July 2014 to August 2022, Reuters noted in its coverage of vigilante activities. Al Jazeera has reported nearly 50 cow-related lynchings of Muslim men since 2014, most involving poor farmers or labourers.
Many Indian states ban cow slaughter and maintain gaushalas for stray cattle, a practice that has coincided with the rise of self-styled vigilante groups often aligned with Hindu nationalist organisations. Wikipedia’s compilation of incidents, drawing from Reuters data, lists 43 people killed in 83 cow-related violence cases through 2024. Former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju observed that the attacks on Khan represented a dangerous inversion of justice by questioning the verdict principally on the basis of her religion.
Police have registered cases under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code against those issuing threats, with the high court intervention coming after judicial bodies highlighted the risks to judicial independence. The two arrested men were traced to locations outside Madhya Pradesh, demonstrating the geographic spread of the online campaign. Khan’s verdict has drawn support from legal professionals who emphasise that judges must be shielded from intimidation to uphold the rule of law.
