Youtuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar arrested for 'defaming' police officers

Chennai: Whistleblower and Youtuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar was on Saturday morning arrested by the Cybercrime wing of the Coimbatore Police for his alleged “defamatory statements” against senior and women police officers in an interview.

Shankar, who runs Savukku media comprising a web portal and a YouTube channel, was picked up from Theni in southern Tamil Nadu and is being taken to Coimbatore, a distance of about 215 km. The arrest comes days after the staff of Savukku media were picked up on various charges and the company’s editor-in-chief quit from his post.

Sources in the police said Shankar was arrested for his “highly objectionable” and “defamatory” statements against 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 suo motu contempt proceedings for his statement that “the entire higher judiciary is riddled with corruption.”

On the way to Coimbatore from Theni, the vehicle in which Shankar was being taken met with an accident near Dharapuram in Tiruppur district in which a couple policemen were injured.

The DMK government has come under criticism for the arrest of Shankar on charges of defamation.