An Indian judge, Tabassum Khan, has become the target of online abuse and death threats after sentencing 14 men to life imprisonment for the 2022 lynching of a Muslim man accused of cattle smuggling. Khan, the additional district and sessions judge in Madhya Pradesh, delivered her verdict on 12 June, finding the men guilty of murder, attempted murder, rioting and wrongful restraint. The case matters because the backlash has targeted Khan's Muslim faith rather than her legal reasoning, prompting senior judicial bodies to defend her and police to grant her protection.

The victim, 50-year-old Nazir Ahmad, was intercepted at night by self-styled "gau rakshaks" (cow protectors) armed with sticks and rods; he was dragged from his vehicle, assaulted and later died of his injuries, while two companions survived. In the wake of the verdict, Hindu right-wing influencers circulated videos featuring communal slurs, rape threats and death threats, with one man warning of "bloodshed" unless the men were freed within 10 days. Protests followed, including one on 22 June in Punjab where an effigy of Khan was burnt, and another on 25 June in Uttar Pradesh demanding the men's release; former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju said the campaign sought to "delegitimise" Khan by reducing her identity to her religion.