An Indian judge has become the target of online abuse and death threats days after she sentenced 14 men to life in prison for lynching a man to death.

On June 12, Tabassum Khan, additional district and sessions judge of a Madhya Pradesh state court, found the men guilty of crimes including murder, attempted murder, rioting and wrongful restraint.

The crime took place in 2022, when Nazir Ahmad, 50, was transporting cattle at night and was intercepted by a group of self-styled “gau rakshaks” (cow protectors), armed with sticks and rods. Hindus consider cows sacred and killing them is illegal in many states.

The men pulled Ahmad and his two companions from the vehicle and brutally assaulted them on suspicion of cow smuggling. Ahmad later succumbed to his injuries, while his companions survived to tell the court what happened.

In his opinion, Khan pointed out that the crime was a clear case of lynching by a mob.

But the verdict has made her a target of religious hatred. In the days after the sentencing, numerous videos appeared online in which Khan, a Muslim, was abused and threatened. The videos implied that Khan had acted against the men because they were Hindus.

While the rulings are often criticized, attacks on Khan have focused not on his legal reasoning but on his religion. The magnitude of the abuse has led the main judicial bodies to support her and she has been given police protection.

The attacks on Khan began shortly after the verdict, when relatives of the convicted men reportedly gathered outside the courtroom to protest the sentence., external and tried to prevent the police convoy from transporting the men to prison. They allege that the men were being punished for “saving cows.”

Then an online campaign of abuse began., externalwhen videos began to surface of Hindu right-wing influencers abusing Khan with communal insults and issuing rape and death threats against her.