‘Savukku’ Shankar case: YouTuber Felix Gerald moves Madras High Court seeking bail

The Madras High Court on Tuesday, June 18, 2024, granted time till June 24 for the Coimbatore cyber crime police to file their counter affidavit to a petition filed by YouTuber G. Felix Jerald, 49, seeking bail in a case booked for his interview with ‘Savukku’ Shankar alias A. Shankar in which the latter had reportedly made derogatory remarks about women police personnel in Tamil Nadu.

The Madras High Court on Tuesday, June 18, 2024, granted time till June 24 for the Coimbatore cyber crime police to file their counter affidavit to a petition filed by YouTuber G. Felix Gerald, 49, seeking bail in a case booked for his interview with ‘Savukku’ Shankar alias A. Shankar in which the latter had reportedly made derogatory remarks about women police personnel in Tamil Nadu.

Justice T.V. Thamilselvi accepted a request made by the prosecution to grant time for the filing of a counter affidavit. In his bail plea, filed through advocate Sudha Ramalingam, the petitioner said, initially, the Tiruchi police had arrested him in Noida on May 10 in a case booked for the same charges and thereafter, the Coimbatore police had arrested formally inside the prison on May 17.

A judicial magistrate in Coimbatore had dismissed his first bail petition on May 31 and the Principal District and Sessions Court in Coimbatore too dismissed his next bail petition on June 10 this year. Seeking bail from the High Court now, the petitioner contended he was just an interviewer and that the alleged derogatory remarks against women police personnel were not made by him.

Stating that he had served as a journalist in multiple television channels in the past, the petitioner said, even the United Consulate in Chennai had chosen him, along with other journalists in Tamil Nadu, to visit the United States of America in 2014. The petitioner said he would neither abscond nor tamper with the evidence in the criminal case if he was let out on bail.