After more than four months since his arrest, Savukku Shankar was released from prison on Wednesday, September 25, after the Supreme Court directed his immediate release. The Tamil Nadu government had submitted that the police had revoked the Goondas Act invoked against him. Based on this, a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra ordered that he should be released immediately.
“The Advisory Board has opined that the impugned order of detention be revoked. Acting on the opinion of the Advisory Board, the state has revoked the order of detention on September 25. Shankar @ Savukku Shankar shall be released forthwith, if not required in any other case," the bench said.
Shankar was arrested on May 4 by the Theni police in a case pertaining to derogatory comments made by him during a YouTube interview. Shankar had claimed that women police personnel were giving sexual favours to a senior police officer in order to get promotions. Seventeen different cases have been filed for this comment, mostly on complaints lodged by police personnel. The cases were registered in different districts – Theni, Trichy, Salem, Coimbatore, and Chennai. The complainants include a police sub inspector, inspector, and deputy superintendent, a journalist, and a politician. He was also booked in a case alleging him of possessing ganja. On May 12, he was detained under Goondas Act based on the orders passed by Chennai Commissioner of Police Sandeep Rai Rathore.
The Madras High Court quashed the Goondas Act on Shankar, on August 9, saying that there must be a “real threat or apprehension of large scale disturbance” among the people to invoke the term 'Public Disorder' and detain a person. However, within days, on August 12, the Theni district administration slapped Goondas Act again on the YouTuber in connection with a case filed against him in May for the possession of ganja. His mother A Kamala then approached the top court, which stayed any coercive action by the Tamil Nadu police against Shankar, on August 14.
The Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Cyber law offenders, Drug-offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders, Forest-offenders, Sand-offenders, Sexual-offenders, Slum-grabbers and Video Pirates Act, 1982, is shortly referred to as The Goondas Act. It is a stringent act that allows authorities to do preventive detention of habitual offenders, including murder accused, immoral traffic offenders, sexual offenders and other such offenders to prevent their dangerous activities that could be detrimental to public order. Within three weeks, the case has to be presented to an Advisory Board. The accused cannot get a bail till the detention order is cancelled by a court.
