Madras High Court denies police protection to BJP leader with 52 FIRs

Society will lose faith in the judiciary if courts begin directing the police to provide personal security officers (PSOs) to people with criminal background, the Madras High Court recently said while dismissing a petition filed by a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seeking police protection..In an order passed on April 1, Justice N Anand Venkatesh dismissed the petition filed by K Venkatesh, the OBC State Secretary of the BJP..The Court noted that in August last year, a close relative of the petitioner was killed by unknown persons. After the incident, Venkatesh, the petitioner, too began receiving several threat calls. He even applied for and secured a license to carry a gun. He then approached the police for a PSO but his demand was opposed by the State police on the ground that he himself had a criminal background.The police filed a status report in Court saying that Venkatesh had around 52 first information reports against him - 49 in Andhra Pradesh and 3 in Tamil Nadu. The Court noted that the police status report termed Venkatesh as a “history sheeted rowdy.”It further said that most of such threats to Venkatesh’s life were a result of his own doing..“While considering the plea for grant of police protection, it is very important to take note of the background and the stature of the person, who is seeking for such a police protection. If the petitioner is a person without any background of criminal cases pending against him, this Court would have straight away directed the respondents to provide police protection to the petitioner without any hesitation. If there are pending criminal cases against a person and if he develops enmity/rivalry due to his own activities, even in such cases, there is a threat perception. However, if this Court directs to give police protection for such persons, it will send a wrong signal to the society and a normal citizen should not get an impression that people with criminal background are also provided with police protection. If such an impression is created, they will lose their faith in the existing system,” the Court said..Advocates Nithyaesh Natraj and Anirudh AS Sriram appeared for Venkatesh, the petitioner.Additional Public Prosecutor A Damodaran appeared for the respondent State government..[Read order]