‘Savukku’ Shankar’s mother moves HCP in Madras High Court for judicial inquiry

Chennai YouTuber's mother files HCP for judicial inquiry into alleged prison violence; seeks treatment in private hospital.

YouTuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar alias A. Shankar’s mother has filed a habeas corpus petition (HCP) in the Madras High Court seeking a judicial inquiry into the alleged violence unleashed against him at the Coimbatore central prison.

The HCP is expected to be listed for hearing before a summer vacation Bench of Justices A.D. Jagadish Chandira and R. Kalaimathi on Wednesday. The petitioner, A. Kamala, 68, claimed to have learnt about the attack from her son’s lawyer.

According to the petitioner, her son was a social activist, whistle blower, political commentator and a YouTuber “who had unearthed various scams” that had earned him the wrath of the government as well as “corrupt officials” who were hand in glove with the mafia.

She claimed he was arrested by the Coimbatore cyber crime police on May 4 in a “false” case booked for speaking ill about women police personnel in an interview that he gave to a YouTube channel. He was declared medically fit before being imprisoned, she said.

However, when the lawyer met him in prison recently, he had complained of having been assaulted brutally inside the prison, the petitioner said and claimed that her son had also suffered a fracture on his right hand due to the attack.

She insisted on conducting a judicial inquiry into the incident and providing treatment to her son in a private hospital.

In the meantime, T. Vignesh, 28, creative head of Savukku media, filed a writ to restrain the  Greater Chennai Police from interfering with the functioning of the YouTube channel from its office at T.Nagar in Chennai.