Gujarat court gives three life terms in cow slaughter case, cites Manusmriti

A court in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar district has sentenced three men to life imprisonment in a cow slaughter case, according to reporting by The Hindu and Press Trust of India. The judgment cited the Manusmriti and other Hindu scriptures while discussing the religious significance of cows.

Additional Sessions Judge B.R. Rajput convicted Vasim Qureshi, Mohammad Rafiq Qureshi and Asfaq Bahelim. The court also imposed a fine reported as ₹3 lakh, although the available account does not clarify whether that amount applies individually or collectively.

The prosecution traced the case to an August 22, 2024, raid on a house in Jamla village in Gandhinagar district. It said six people were arrested after authorities recovered 277 kilograms of beef, implements allegedly used for slaughter and a vehicle intended to transport the meat.

Three of the six men were found guilty after the trial, according to the reports. The prosecution presented 54 witnesses and 18 pieces of documentary evidence in support of its case. The available accounts do not explain the individual findings concerning the other three accused.

In its discussion of Hindu scriptures, the court described the cow as having both religious and material importance. Its references to the Manusmriti included the text’s treatment of cattle protection and the significance of a cow and bull in a traditional form of marriage.

The judgment also referred to the Vedas and religious accounts associated with Kamadhenu, the divine cow in Hindu tradition. Those passages were presented as the court’s description of religious beliefs; they are distinct from the prosecution’s account of the raid and the evidence offered at trial.

Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi welcomed the sentences and congratulated Gandhinagar police and the prosecution. He attributed the outcome to their investigation and presentation of evidence, and framed the verdict as a warning against cow slaughter in the state. His remarks expressed the government’s response to the ruling.

The sentences come under Gujarat’s stringent animal preservation framework. A 2017 amendment to the Gujarat Animal Preservation Act, 1954, increased the punishment for cow slaughter to allow life imprisonment, according to the reports. The legislation also provides penalties for offences involving the transportation, storage or sale of beef.

The case brings together the severe criminal penalties available under that framework and the sentencing court’s extensive references to religious texts. The reported convictions concern cow slaughter, rather than merely the discovery of meat. The available coverage, however, does not reproduce the complete judgment or set out how the court assessed each element of the offences.

The reports do not state whether the convicted men intend to appeal, and they provide no defence response to the sentences. Further detail on any challenge to the ruling remains unavailable in those accounts. For now, the reported outcome is three life sentences, publicly endorsed by the state’s deputy chief minister.