Chennai: YouTuber and whistleblower ‘Savukku’ Shankar on Monday alleged that there was a plan to “kill him” at the Coimbatore Central Prison where he is lodged for the past 10 days, even as the Chennai City Police invoked the stringent Goondas Act in a case involving using forged documents in an interview.
Shankar, who was arrested on May 4 for making derogatory and defamatory remarks against women police personnel, claimed on Monday while he was brought to a hospital for a medical check-up that his hand was broken by Coimbatore Central Prison Superintendent Senthil Kumar.
“He (Senthil Kumar) is the one who broke my hand in the prison. My life is under threat from (him). I will be killed in Coimbatore prison,” Shankar said on Monday.
His comments came as the Chennai Police Commissioner Sandeep Rai Rathore invoked the stringent Goondas Act against Shankar, against whom seven cases are already pending. A statement said of the 7 cases, three are under investigation, and chargesheets have been filed in two cases, and the remaining two are pending in courts.
Shankar made defamatory comments against women police personnel alleging that they make compromises with senior officials to get postings in the department. At one point in the interview, Shankar also calls a police officer a “scoundrel.” Police also arrested Felix Gerald, the YouTuber who aired the interview.
While the arrest of Shankar and Gerald have led to a debate on social media, almost all political parties in Tamil Nadu have refrained from condemning their arrest, though they had come out in support of the YouTuber when cases were filed against his colleagues from Savukku Media.
Publisher Badri Seshadri criticised the DMK government for foisting cases against Shankar, saying the dispensation has shown how far they would go to crush someone if they decide to do so.
“Narcotics act, and now Goondas Act? However, justice is not served by such actions. This is also going to be a test of 'hate speech' related laws, including T.N. Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act. Day in and day out, DMK sympathisers write unprintable things, most notably against the honourable Finance Minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman. We do not see the application of this law at all,” Seshadri said.
Shankar and Gerald are vociferous in their criticism against the DMK government led by Chief Minister M K Stalin. The duo had come under criticism in the past for going “overboard” in their criticism of the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues by dragging their personal lives.
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.”