High Court directs restoration of police protection to Sagayam

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Monday took strong exception to the Tamil Nadu government withdrawing protection to IAS officer U Sagayam who probed illegal granite mining scam in Madurai district as a court-appointed legal commissioner.

A special bench comprising Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice G Jayachandran, referring to the HC order issued in 2018 that no person involved in carrying out court assigned duties should be victimised or threatened and it’s the sovereign duty of the State to protect those who have discharged duty under law, said: “Though the legal commissioner and other officers have been relieved we had made it clear that the court would call for their assistance in the case as and when required.”

Expressing surprise on the move by the TN government to revoke the security provided to the officers, the bench directed the State to maintain status quo of the protection provided to Sagayam and other officers as on March 16, 2018, till further orders.

Sagayam, who was appointed by the HC as legal commissioner to probe the multi-crore granite mining scam in Madurai was given security after it took notice of the threat he and his family faced from the granite lobby.

The issue relates to a PIL moved by activist Traffic KR Ramaswamy seeking to probe illegal granite mining in Madurai and other districts.

During the hearing, the bench also refused to grant two months’ time as sought by Advocate General Vijay Narayan for installation of CCTV cameras in district and state borders to detect transportation of illicit granites, and directed the State to complete the process expeditiously and file a status report on December 11.