A court in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar district has sentenced three men to life imprisonment in a cow slaughter case and ordered each of them to pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh. Additional Sessions Judge B.R. Rajput pronounced the verdict on October 26, and the court’s reasoning went well beyond the usual legal text. It drew on Hindu scriptures, including the ancient Sanskrit text Manusmriti.

The three convicted men are Wasim Qureshi, Mohammad Rafique Qureshi and Asfaq Bahelim. Each received a life term along with the Rs 3 lakh penalty. The court’s judgment was reported by NT News, and the verdict has since become a talking point well beyond the courtroom.

The case goes back to August 22, 2024. Police raided a house in Jamla village in Gandhinagar district and seized 277 kg of beef, weapons used to slaughter cows, and the vehicle used to transport the meat. Six people were arrested in the operation.

What the prosecution alleged

According to the prosecution, the accused father and son bought cows that were weak or no longer giving milk. They then allegedly brought four men from Ahmedabad to their home to slaughter the animals, with the aim of selling the beef. That allegation formed the core of the state’s argument over the three-year stretch the case covered from raid to verdict.

To make its case, the prosecution produced 54 witnesses and 18 documentary exhibits before the court. The sheer volume of evidence helped shape a trial that ended with convictions for three of the six accused.

Scripture at the center of the verdict

What has pulled readers in is the way the court framed the cow itself. The judgment stressed the religious importance of the animal and quoted from Hindu texts to explain why the cow holds such a place in the eyes of the law. In a rare move for a criminal verdict in India, the bench leaned on Manusmriti, an ancient Sanskrit text, to describe the animal.

According to the court, under Manusmriti the cow is not merely an animal. It is regarded as a pillar of physical well-being and dharma. The judgment also described the origin of the Kamadhenu, the divine cow, which it said emerged when drops of ‘amrita’ fell on earth through the power of penance.

“The cow is considered the ‘mother of the universe’ and the primordial mother of all cattle on earth. It is said to be the abode of 33 crore deities, and its four legs symbolise the four Vedas.”

Passages like that are unusual in a courtroom. Legal experts and readers alike will now debate how far religious texts should carry weight in a criminal judgment, but the court made clear that it saw the cow as a matter of faith as well as law.

Political reaction and the 2017 amendment

Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi welcomed the verdict. He said it sends a clear message that the law will not spare those who commit cow slaughter in the state.

The sentence rests on a legal shift that predates this case. The Gujarat Animal Preservation Act, which dates back to 1954, was amended in 2017. The amendment raised the punishment for cow slaughter to life imprisonment. That change made Gujarat the first state in India to prescribe that penalty for the offence.

The timeline matters here. The 2017 amendment set the legal framework, the 2024 raid produced the evidence, and the October 2026 reporting brought the verdict into public view. Each step shows how the state has pushed the issue through the justice system.

Why this verdict is drawing attention

Three life sentences in a single case are rare enough to stand out. Pair that with a judgment that openly cites Hindu scriptures and Manusmriti, and the story becomes something people want to read, share and argue about. The case sits at the crossroads of criminal law, religious belief and state politics.

The facts are clear: a raid, 277 kg of beef, six arrests, three convictions, and a fine of Rs 3 lakh for each convicted man. The reasoning is what keeps the story alive. A court deciding that a cow is a source of dharma and the mother of the universe has handed the public a verdict that will be talked about for a long time.