The Madras High Court on Monday observed that people would lose faith in the judiciary if courts began directing the police to provide personal security officers (PSOs) to people with criminal backgrounds who faced threats to their lives solely because of their own conduct.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh said this, while denying police protection to ‘Milakaipodi’ Venkatesan alias K. Venkatesh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since he was an accused person in as many as 49 cases booked in Andhra Pradesh for smuggling red sanders, apart from criminal cases pending in Tamil Nadu.
The judge also criticised the Tamil Nadu police for blowing hot and cold on the issue by vehemently opposing the plea for police protection before the court on one hand, but on the hand, leaking to the writ petitioner, the internal communications related to him facing threats to his life from his rivals.,
