Overview
- Hertfordshire Constabulary says detectives are investigating a series of linked incidents against retired Justice Gautam Patel and his family and that safeguarding measures have been provided to the family in the UK.
- The intimidation campaign includes an attempted burglary in August 2025, a masked assault on Patel’s daughter in April 2026 that broke her nose, and a June 5, 2026 letter sent to his daughter’s London address that contained explicit death threats and an SD card now handed to police.
- Justice Patel and legal bodies say the threats are tied to his April 23, 2024 judgment that upheld Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin as the 53rd Dai al‑Mutlaq in the Dawoodi Bohra succession dispute and that the campaign demanded he recant the ruling on video.
- Three Mumbai lawyers’ associations have filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court asking for protective directions and a Special Investigation Team made up of Maharashtra Police, the CBI and the NIA to probe the threats and attacks.
- Chief Justice Surya Kant raised the case with Indian High Commissioner P. Kumaran in London, who pledged to work with UK authorities, and both the Dawoodi Bohra office and bar bodies have publicly condemned the threats as an assault on judicial independence.