The Madras High Court
Credit: PTI File photo
Chennai: Granting interim bail to popular Tamil YouTuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar on medical grounds, the Madras High Court on Friday castigated the DMK dispensation for repeatedly incarcerating him by curtailing his right to personal liberty.
A division bench of justices S M Subramaniam and P Dhanabal granted interim bail to Shankar for 12 weeks on a petition filed by his mother who said her son is a cardiac patient and needs special care.
‘This Court is unable to understand as to why one particular individual, who is an YouTube Journalist has repeatedly been incarcerated by the Law Enforcement Agency. It raises suspicion as to whether the petitioner’s son herein has become a target of the ruling dispensation as alleged by her,” the judges wrote in the order.
They said the history of this individual showcases instances where Goondas Act has been invoked against this individual repeatedly for
expressing his views on YouTube videos on the actions of the state government.
They also said the repeated arrests of Shankar raises serious questions as to whether there has been any abuse of process of law on the part of the State Government’s Law Enforcement Agency. “This is highly unusual where the same individual has been slashed with two detention orders and the second detention order was passed immediately after the 1st detention order was set aside by this court,” the judges wrote.
The court said the allegations in the affidavit filed by Shankar’s mother are serious in nature alleging mental harassment and repeated harassment meted out to the petitioner’s son which can cause serious disrepute to the law enforcement agency.
“This Court has time and again reiterated that due process of law shall not be misused to target specific individuals, who have fallen out of favour with the state government. The professionalism and discipline of the uniformed personnel shall not be compromised under any circumstances by indulging in such forceful action unnecessarily,” the judges added.
They also said the repeated clamping down of an individual, who has the right to dissent under Article 19(1)(a) will not send the right signal to the citizens. “This Court feels that the right to personal liberty of the prisoner under Article 21 has been repeatedly curtailed, which can only be construed as an abuse of process of law,” the judges added.
Shankar, a vociferous critic of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu, was arrested on December 13 by the Chennai Police in connection with a criminal case filed against him. Though the police didn’t officially divulge the reason for his arrest, Shankar took to social media to allege that he was being arrested for a Rs 94,000 UPI transaction to one of his employees on Friday night.
Shankar, a former government employee who was suspended from the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), runs a popular YouTube channel, Savukku Media, and is known for his critical views of the DMK dispensation led by Chief Minister M K Stalin.