Retired government official N. Shanmugham sent a letter threatening the senior advocate for representing the Muslim side in the Ayodhya title suit appeals

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to an 88-year-old Chennai-based man for allegedly intimidating senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan for representing the Muslim side in the Ayodhya title suit appeals.

Mr. Dhavan had sought contempt proceedings to be initiated against N. Shanmugham, retired government official.

The senior lawyer, who appears for the Sunni Waqf board, annexed a letter from Mr. Shanmugham with his petition.

“By sending the letter, the alleged contemnor has committed criminal contempt because he is intimidating a senior advocate who is appearing for a party/parties before this hon’ble court and discharging his duties as a senior advocate and he ought not to have sent such a letter and therefore the petitioner is constrained to file the present contempt petition before this Hon’ble Court,” Mr. Dhavan submitted in his petition

Mr. Dhavan said this was not the only instance of threats being made to him for appearing in the Ayodhya case.

“It needs to be mentioned that the petitioner has been accosted both at home and on the court premises with intimidating behaviour by several persons,” he said in his petition.

He referred to several WhatsApp messages sent by a Sanjay Kalal Bajrangi in this context. He has annexed screenshots of the messages in his petition.