Fresh cases filed against Youtuber 'Savukku' Shankar; office raided

Chennai: Trouble seems to be mounting for YouTuber and whistleblower ‘Savukku’ Shankar with fresh cases continuing to be filed against him, even as the Theni Police on Friday conducted raids at his office here in connection with a ganja case filed against him last week.

Shankar was arrested on May 4 by the Coimbatore Police from Theni for his 'derogatory and defamatory' remarks against senior and women police officers of the state and was lodged at the Coimbatore Central Prison. Since then, as many as five cases have been filed against Shankar, a suspended employee of the Department of Vigilance and anti-Corruption (DVAC), in various parts of the state.

On Friday, a team from Theni police conducted searches at Shankar’s Savukku media office in T. Nagar and at his residence in Maduravoyal on the outskirts of the city. The police had last week slapped a case against Shankar for allegedly possessing ganja when he was arrested from a hotel room in Theni on May 4.

The day also saw Shankar being produced before a local court in Egmore in Chennai in connection with two cases booked against him by Cyber Crime Wing of Greater Chennai City Police. The whistleblower’s lawyer had alleged that Shankar was assaulted by prison staff earlier this week, but the Tamil Nadu government denied the charges.

Meanwhile, the Chennai Police registered a case against Shankar based on a complaint filed by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), for allegedly forging documents on the construction of a new bus terminus in Kilambakkam near Chennai to deliberately mislead the public.

Sources in the police said Shankar was arrested for his “highly objectionable” and “defamatory” statements on senior police officers and women police officers in an interview to a YouTube channel. Shankar also made disparaging remarks against police officers, calling them “scoundrels” in the same interview.

Shankar, a former employee of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), is a regular on Tamil YouTube channels and is a known critic of the DMK government. He spent over two months in jail in 2022 after the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court sentenced him to six months in jail in a suo motu contempt proceedings against him for his statement that “the entire higher judiciary is riddled with corruption.”