“Don’t call him a ‘prathi’ (accused), the charges raised against him haven’t been proven,” a member of the All Kerala Men’s Association (AKMA) told media persons in front of the Aluva Sub-Jail in Ernakulam on Saturday, June 2. The ‘prathi’ he was passionately defending is Savad Sha, a 28-year-old man who was sent to remand around three weeks ago, after a woman alleged that she caught him masturbating while seated between her and another female passenger in a bus. In the video, Savad can be seen immediately standing up and hurrying towards the bus door as the woman asks him if he “can stop doing that”. The accused is later seen engaged in a scuffle with the conductor outside the bus, eventually pushing him away and running across the road. He was later caught and handed over to the police on the same day.

Five to six members of the AKMA gathered in front of the sub-jail, some of them having travelled from districts as far as Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam, with the sole purpose of welcoming this ‘prathi’ with open arms and garlands as he was set to be released on bail on Saturday. By around 2pm, several media persons — a majority of them online YouTube channels — arrived at the sub-jail premises to witness this felicitation, which ideally should not have happened in the first place. During the wait for Savad’s release and the subsequent ‘welcome party’, which finally took place around 7.30 pm, AKMA president Vattiyoorkavu Ajith Kumar took it upon himself to brief the media about why Savad is the “innocent victim” of a “heinous plot woven by two women.” Savad is the victim of a “honey trap”, Ajith Kumar claimed, regurgitating a victim-blaming narrative first popularised by a YouTuber named Jamsheer. 

Using screenshots from Instagram reels earlier shared by the complainant, Jamsheer had alleged that the two women on the bus were actually friends, and that they had together made a plan to “trap men” for “Instagram reach”. This claim however isn’t true. The woman in the complainant’s reels recently posted a video on Instagram categorically denying the same, adding that she was not even in Kerala on the day of the incident. She also pointed out that she has a sizeable tattoo below her neck, which would have been visible at least to an extent if she was indeed the female passenger in the video taken in the bus.

The AKMA members, at least two of whom claim to be activists with the Indian National Congress as per their Facebook pages, meanwhile remain adamant the complainant and “her friend” had gone from buses to buses for several days in search of the “perfect victim” to “honey trap”, until Savad finally fell into their laps on May 16. Even as they cast aspersions against the complainant and victim-blamed her based on her clothes because they are “sure that this was all a devious plan devised by her”, they reminded media persons that Savad should not be called “criminal”, because “he hasn’t been convicted yet.” 

AKMA president Vattiyoorkavu Ajith Kumar speaks to media persons / Image by TNM

Eventually, when Savad finally walked out of the jail by nighttime, they clapped and cheered before felicitating him with garlands. “All of us are with you,” Ajith Kumar told Savad, who smiled at the media persons before immediately getting into a car waiting for him, seemingly in a hurry to leave.

The accused Savad Sha smiles at media persons / Image by Neelakkuyil Entertainments

Meanwhile, the AKMA members said that high-profile advocate BA Aloor has been appointed to appear in defence of Savad in the case. Aloor has famously appeared in several high-profile cases in defence of the accused, including for Govindachamy, who was eventually found guilty in the rape and murder case of 23-year-old Soumya. The fees for Aloor, who is rumoured to charge in lakhs, will apparently be provided by the association.

Though a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty, a question remains as to whether solidarity is to be expressed by celebrating an alleged sex offender. The complainant had mentioned in an interview that after her video calling out Savad went viral, several women messaged her about experiencing similar offences at the hands of the same man. When this was pointed out, an AKMA member’s response was to issue an open challenge for these women’s names to be released publicly. In a society where victim blaming and blatant character assassination are the immediate responses to a woman raising a sexual abuse charge, a call for survivors to out themselves by a flagbearer of misogyny would be the last thing to be of help.