Additional District and Sessions Judge Tabassum Khan received threats on social media after sentencing seven men to life imprisonment in a 2022 lynching case. Police registered an FIR and increased her security in Narmadapuram district.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Tabassum Khan sentenced seven men to life imprisonment on June 12 for the lynching of truck driver Sheikh Lala Nazir Ahmed. The attack occurred in August 2022 near Barakhand village in Seoni Malwa when a mob assaulted Nazir Ahmed and Sheikh Mushtaq on suspicion of cow smuggling. The court found the accused guilty of rioting, attempted murder and murder, describing the assault as extremely brutal.
Following the verdict, videos and posts on social media targeted the judge over her religious identity. Some posts issued threats and called for the release of the convicts, while others showed effigies being burned during protests.
Seoni Malwa police registered an FIR under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for promoting enmity and acts prejudicial to public order. Narmadapuram Additional Superintendent of Police Abhishek Ranjan said authorities are monitoring social media and have heightened the judge's security.
Rajya Sabha member Pawan Khera stated that the men were convicted based on evidence, not religion.
