Gujarat Court Sentences Three Men to Life in Cow Slaughter Case

A sessions court in Kalol, in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar district, has sentenced three men to rigorous life imprisonment for alleged slaughtering a cow. The case stems from a police raid in August 2024 in which 277 kg of beef, valued at about ₹55,000, was seized. Additional Sessions Judge B.R. Rajput delivered the judgment on Monday, October 26, 2026. He convicted Wasim Qureshi of Juhapura, Mahmad Rafiq Qureshi of Behrampura and Asfaq Bahelim of Fatehwadi (all localities in Ahmedabad) under the Gujarat Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, among other provisions. Six people had been arrested; three were convicted after trial.

The Case at a Glance

What the Police Found

According to Additional Public Prosecutor Jignesh Joshi, police raided the house of Lalabhai Senma in Jamla village on August 22, 2024, and recovered the allegedly 277 kg of beef from the three men. They also seized weapons allegedly used in the slaughter and a vehicle used to carry the meat. Investigators said the meat was meant to be sold to one Ghulam Moin Qureshi.

The prosecution’s case, as reported by Deccan Herald, was that the accused bought old or non-milking cows and buffaloes cheaply and slaughtered them as a business.

A Judgment that Opens with Scripture

The verdict drew attention less for the sentence than for how it was framed. According to Deccan Herald, the first four pages of the judgment discuss the importance of the cow, drawing on the Vedas and the Manusmriti. It describes the cow as revered as the mother of the universe and as the dwelling place of 33 crore deities.

The court held that the convicts slaughtered the animal and tried to sell its meat while knowing its cultural significance. It said that whenever guilt is proved by evidence, the punishment the law prescribes must follow, and warned that without such punishment, “the mother cows will become extinct with the passage of time.”

The law behind the sentence

Gujarat’s cow-protection framework is built on the Gujarat Animal Preservation Act, 1954, which has been tightened twice.

Key features of the 2017 amendment, passed on March 31, 2017 and brought into force that June:

•         Cow slaughter became punishable with a minimum of 10 years and up to life imprisonment.

•         All offences under the Act were made cognisable and non-bailable.

•         Fines were raised to between ₹1 lakh and ₹5 lakh, from up to ₹50,000 earlier.

•         Vehicles used to transport cattle for slaughter are confiscated permanently, instead of being impounded for six months.

•         Transport of cattle, even licensed movement, was barred at night.

The Assembly passed the bill while Opposition Congress MLAs were absent after being suspended for the day. At the time, Gujarat became the first state to provide a life term for cow slaughter. The Supreme Court had earlier upheld Gujarat’s ban on slaughtering cow progeny in its 2005 Constitution Bench ruling in State of Gujarat v. Mirzapur Moti Kureshi Kassab Jamat.

Not the first: the Amreli precedent

The Kalol verdict comes less than a year after the first case in Gujarat in which three people received life terms in a single cow-slaughter case.

On November 11, 2025, Principal District and Sessions Judge Rizvana Bukhari in Amreli sentenced Kasim Haji Solanki (20), Akram Haji Solanki (30) and their uncle Sattar Ismail Solanki (52) to life imprisonment. Police had raided their home in the Mota Khatkiwad area of Amreli on November 6, 2023, and reported recovering about 40 kg of beef, animal remains, knives, weighing scales and a vehicle. The court imposed fines of about ₹6.08 lakh each, or more than ₹18 lakh in total.

The Amreli verdict also cited the animal’s sacred status in Hinduism. Special Public Prosecutor Chandresh Mehta said at the time that the district had recorded 24 convictions in at least 14 cases under the Act over three years, according to The Wire. The Solanki family said it would appeal to a higher court.

Reactions

After the Amreli verdict, the state’s BJP government welcomed it as historic. Government spokesperson and minister Jitu Vaghani called it a “red signal” for those involved in cow slaughter and said the state would show no mercy in such offences.

Critics, including several minority-focused outlets, have questioned the reliance on religious texts in a criminal judgment and pointed out that the convicts in both cases are Muslim. They argue that the law’s penalties are now in line with those for murder and fall heavily on communities involved in the cattle and meat trade. Supporters of the law say it protects an animal central to the faith of a majority of Gujaratis, and that the courts are only applying penalties passed by the legislature and upheld by the Supreme Court.

No public statement from the Kalol convicts or their lawyers on an appeal had been reported as of October 29, 2026. Under Indian criminal procedure, they can appeal to the Gujarat High Court.