Bhopal, July 3 -- The Madhya Pradesh High Court has taken suo motu cognisance of news reports about communal threats issued against an Additional District and Sessions Judge who had sentenced a group of cow vigilantes to life imprisonment in a lynching case, and directed senior police and government officials to explain the steps taken to protect her.

A division bench of Justice Vivek Agarwal and Justice Avanindra Kumar Singh passed the order on Wednesday, July 1, while hearing a pending suo motu reference concerning the security of judicial officers in the state, after taking note of reports that Additional District and Sessions Judge Tabassum Khan of Narmadapuram district was being targeted online on the basis of her religious identity...