In a chilling account of alleged mob violence and institutional apathy, a Mumbai-based woman, Reshma Rafiq Tamboli (33) has approached the Bombay High Court on Friday (August 8, 2025), seeking urgent intervention in tracing her husband, who has been missing for over two years after reportedly being assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes in Pune district.
Ms. Tamboli, the petitioner, has alleged that her husband, Rafiq Mehboob Tamboli (35), a tempo driver, was abducted and possibly lynched by a group led by Shivshankar Swami — an individual claiming to be an Animal Welfare Officer appointed under a High Court-constituted committee.
When the matter was called in the High Court, advocate Satish B. Talekar for the petitioner informed the Division Bench of Justices Ravindra V. Ghuge and Gautam Ashwin Ankad, that the incident took place on the night of June 4, 2021, when Mr. Tamboli and a cleaner named Imran Sheikh Abdul Gafar were transporting meat from Pune’s Indapur to Mumbai. They were intercepted near Daund by a group of men in a white car, who accused them of transporting beef illegally. The mob, allegedly armed with bamboo sticks and sharp weapons, reportedly dragged the two out of the vehicle, assaulted them, and raised communal slogans.
