Savukku Shankar, an YouTuber and a clerical employee of the Tamil Nadu Vigilance Department who was recently sentenced by the Madras High Court in a contempt case, has been dismissed from service. Sources in Cuddalore prison said that the notice dismissing him from service was pasted on the wall of his cell as he refused to accept it by hand.
Shankar was on suspension since 2008 for allegedly leaking secret phone conversations of two higher officials of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC). He had legally challenged the DVAC's decision to suspend him and was on subsistence allowance.
Shankar is currently serving a six-month imprisonment after the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court had held him guilty of criminal contempt of court. The court, in its order, observed that Shankar is a suspended employee of the state government. “He has been receiving a subsistence allowance for the last 13 years and is governed by the Conduct Rules. Yet, he has been attacking all three organs of the state viciously,” the court order said. The court also directed the government to ensure that the offending interviews and articles are taken down.
Shankar was employed as a lower division clerk in the DVAC. As per reports, he got the job on humanitarian grounds after his father, a Department employee, passed away. Shankar was arrested in 2008 when the DMK government was in power. Eventually, he was suspended from the Department in December 2008.
After his release, he turned whistleblower and launched a website named Savukku, meaning whip, in 2009. He exposed corruption and wrote about government officials, politicians, journalists, lawyers and high court judges.
On September 15, the Madurai Bench of the Madras HC sentenced him for remarks against the judiciary. Justice GR Swaminathan initiated a suo motu contempt case against Shankar for his statement: “The entire higher judiciary is riddled with corruption” on a YouTube channel. The case pertains to six separate comments made by Shankar in interviews he had given to two YouTube channels and in an article he had written and published on the website savukkuonline.com. He was first lodged in Central Prison in Madurai and later shifted to Cuddalore prison citing security reasons.
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