Tamil Nadu police arrests ‘Savukku’ Shankar in old cases, prevents his release from prison

Whistleblower and political commentator, ‘Savukku’ Shankar, will not be able to walk out of the Central Prison in Cuddalore despite the Supreme Court suspending his six-month imprisonment in a contempt of court case.

The Tamil Nadu Police on Thursday evening arrested Shankar in four cases registered by the Crime Branch’s Cyber Crime Wing between 2020 and 2021. The arrest intimation was served to Shankar, who is at the Cuddalore prison since September this year, and to his mother who lives in Chennai.

The notice, a copy of which was seen by DH, says the police have arrested Shankar in connection with three cases registered in 2020 and one filed in 2021. The cases have been filed under several sections of the IPC, including intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace and statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes, and the Official Secrets Act.

Sources said Shankar was arrested in all four cases on Thursday evening, a day before the Supreme Court was to hear his case. “The SC has now suspended the six months imprisonment in the contempt of court case. But Shankar won’t be released since he has been arrested in four cases,” a source said.

Shankar was on September 15 sentenced to six months imprisonment by a division bench of justices G R Swaminathan and B Pugalendhi of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court for his comments that higher judiciary is “riddle with corruption.”

The bench had sentenced Shankar to six months simple imprisonment and directed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to ensure that the “offending interviews” and article are taken down forthwith.

Shankar, a suspended employee of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), runs a web portal under the name Savukku and is a regular on Tamil YouTube channels.

He was arrested in 2008 by the then DMK government for allegedly leaking a tape containing audio conversations of two top officials. After his release from the jail, Shankar became a whistleblower and exposed several scams.