Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan held that Shanmugam has made out a prima facie case for grant of police protection, to protect his life and limb.

“The petitioner made out a prima facie case to provide police protection to his life and limb. Now the petitioner is a member of Legislative Assembly and also he is holding various posts in the political party that he is associated with. Considering the above facts and circumstances of the case, this Court is inclined to issue a direction to provide adequate police protection to the petitioner. As such, the second respondent is directed to provide adequate police protection with necessary weapon to the petitioner forthwith,” the court ordered.

Shanmugan had informed the court that in 2006, while serving as a Minister in the AIADMK cabinet, a gang of criminals who were associated with a political rival came in a two-wheeler and attacked him, his two brothers, and his brother-in-law with deadly weapons.

Shanmugam submitted that though he escaped the attack, his brother was murdered. Following this, an FIR was registered, and the trial is pending in the case. He submitted that after the attack, he was given police protection. When this protection was withdrawn, he had approached the court, wherein the court observed that there was life threat against Shanmugam from his political and personal adversaries. The court had also set aside the withdrawal of police protection and directed that an appropriate decision be taken, in light of the life threat.

Shanmugam submitted that despite the order, the police failed to consider the direction on the ground that there was no necessity for providing any special security to Shanmugam. The court was informed that presently, a patta book was being maintained in his residence and peak police personnel were given instructions to watch the house and the surrounding areas and to sign in the patta passbook.

Shanmugam had thus approached the court seeking to transfer the investigation pending in 15 cases to the CBI.

The police, however, submitted that the threat assessment report from all agencies revealed that Shanmugam was not facing any threat to his life. It was also submitted that, except for the murder case, there was no major incident which could be seen as a threat.

The court noted that Shanmugam had lodged 20 complaints since 2006. Out of this, the FIR had been registered in some cases and for some others, the complaints were closed after conducting a detailed enquiry.

On going through the documents, the court noted that the complaints had been lodged with a different set of allegations. Thus, the court observed that transferring the investigation to the CBI would not be possible.

However, noting that the life threat faced by Shanmugam, the court was inclined to issue a direction to the DGP to provide police protection.

Counsel for Petitioner: Mrs. P. Karthika Kamal for Mr. E. Balamurugan

Counsel for Respondent: Mr. Arun Anbumani, Government Advocate (Criminal Side), Mr. K. Srinivasan, Special Public Prosecutor (CBI)

Case Title: C. Ve Shanmugam v The State of Tamil Nadu and Others

Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Mad) 295

Case No: WP No 36331 of 2024