Chennai: “We will have to meet regularly. There is so much to reveal. This new year, I will be a headache to the DMK government,” said Achimuthu Shankar alias ‘Savukku’ Shankar in an interview with RedPix, a Tamil YouTube channel in December 2023.
Four months later, Shankar is lodged in Coimbatore Central prison with seven cases registered against him in various parts of Tamil Nadu on multiple charges including making defamatory remarks against women, possession of ganja, and forging documents. The police have also slapped the stringent Goondas Act, which allows preventive detention of up to one year.
Shankar was arrested 4 May by the Coimbatore police for the alleged derogatory remarks against women police personnel in the interview in which he claimed that women police officers were doing ‘sexual favours’ to senior officers for promotions. Days later, RedPix editor Felix Gerald was also arrested.
A former lower division clerk in the intelligence wing of the Tamil Nadu police, Shankar runs YouTube channel and website, Savukku (whip in Tamil), in which he vehemently criticises the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government. His social media posts not only criticise the government but often make personal attacks on Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and his family members including his son and wife.
“He is not adhering to any kind of ethical journalism. If you criticise someone, you need to have some evidence, even if you hide the source of information. You can’t just blatantly say that Stalin’s son-in-law is heading the government,” says Chinnappan, media analyst and former head of the visual communication department of Chennai’s Loyola College.
Chinnappan says there should be constructive criticism of the government’s policies and administration, but Shankar’s credibility is doubtful as he only makes blatant allegations against the ruling party.
Political analyst Sumanth C. Raman, however, says the arrest was not required in the case.
“I think they should have filed a defamation case. They could have brought him to justice for whatever he would have said or did,” Raman says, adding that the arrest of Gerald and the search in his residence was unnecessary.
Raman claims that the people critical of the DMK government are facing action.
In June 2023, BJP supporter Uma Karthikeyan was arrested for alleged defamatory remarks against Stalin, former CM Karunanidhi and Dravidian icon Periyar Similarly, AIADMK worker Arunkumar was also arrested in Pollachi in October for allegedly circulating a video in which a man was seen abusing Stalin.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) spokesperson Kovai Sathyan tells ThePrint that Tamil Nadu has been seeing curtailment of the freedom of the press under the DMK rule.
“The DMK has been in power for three years. How come suddenly there has been a series of cases against him (Shankar)? It’s clear that the government is curtailing the freedom of anybody who is talking about them. The press doesn’t have any freedom under the DMK regime. Not only Savuku, any frontline press in Tamil Nadu doesn’t have the courage to talk about the government,” Sathyan alleges.
DMK spokesperson A. Saravanan tells ThePrint that the party will not be commenting on the issue.
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Controversy’s child
Shankar, who got the job at the police department following the death of his father in service, first grabbed attention in 2008 when he leaked audios showing illegal wiretapping practices by the Tamil Nadu intelligence. Shankar was arrested and remained suspended till 2022 when he was dismissed.
After being released on bail, Shankar began a blog post which led to the launch of Savukku in 2010 through which he mostly exposed corruption via information he gathered from different official sources and RTI applications. Apart from the website, he gave interviews to online channels on different matters, thereby making him a familiar name in the State.
He then went on to launch his own YouTube channel ‘Savukku Media’.
“There are a lot of YouTube channels and you might be wondering why there should be another one. This channel will not be covering press meetings or events. Many people contributed to the development of Tamil Nadu, but not many of them are known. The media is only covering a few known faces. I am going to bring them to the media attention,” he had said.
A staunch critic of the previous AIADMK government, Shankar started opposing the DMK when it came to power in 2021. In a discussion on the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) raid in Narch this year, Shankar alleges the DMK has involvement in drug cases in the city.
Apart from this, many of his social media posts also target the CM and his family. For instance, sharing a newspaper article that reported about Udhayanidhi Stalin’s departure to London after a 24-day Lok Sabha campaign, Shankar posted in Tamil on ‘X’ — “Prince can’t bear the heat”.
பட்டத்து இளவரசர் வெயில் தாங்க மாட்டார். pic.twitter.com/eF4yM0WWDD
— Savukku Shankar (@SavukkuOfficial) May 2, 2024
Apart from the ruling party, he has also targeted police and bureaucracy. He had also raised allegations that his channel was targeted by the government.
In September 2022, Shankar was sentenced to six-month imprisonment in a suo motu contempt petition for his comment that the higher judiciary is riddled with corruption. Two months later, the Supreme Court suspended the sentence and directed Shankar not to make any videos or comments regarding court proceedings.
“He used to put out documents. He was embarrassing the government like anything. The only thing is that he should have stopped there, but he went into the personal lives of people,” Raman says, adding Shankar would have gathered more support if he had limited himself to corruption.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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