Savukku’ Shankar, saying the State is using its might to ensure that he stays in prison.“Why are you doing all this? You put the man behind bars the moment he come out,” Justice J.B. Pardiwala, accompanied by Justice Manoj Misra, orally asked the Tamil Nadu government’s

INDIA2 Mins Read‘Savukku’ Shankar: Why are you after YouTuber, Supreme Court asks Tamil NaduPublished / Updated- August 23, 2024 22:43 IST THE HINDU BUREAUYouTuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar at a court in Udhagamandalam on July 29, 2024. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Listen to articleSupreme Court says the Tamil Nadu government puts Mr. Shankar behind bars the moment he comes out; accused of making derogatory remarks against policewomen, YouTuber says he is exercising his free speech rights; Supreme Court defers hearing to August 27The Supreme Court on Friday (August 23, 2024) accused the Tamil Nadu government of targeting YouTuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar, saying the State is using its might to ensure that he stays in prison.“Why are you doing all this? You put the man behind bars the moment he come out,” Justice J.B. Pardiwala, accompanied by Justice Manoj Misra, orally asked the Tamil Nadu government’s counsel.ADVERTISEMENTThe court deferred the hearing to August 27 on noting that another petition filed by Mr. Shankar’s mother A. Kamala, against the State’s second detention order against her son, was already listed for hearing on that date.ADVERTISEMENT‘Quash all FIRs’On August 14, 2024, the top court directed the Tamil Nadu police not to take any coercive measures against Mr. Shankar in the 16 FIRs registered against him in various districts of the State. Both mother and son are represented by advocates Balaji Srinivasan Harsha Tripathi and K. Gowtham Kumar.Saying that all the FIRs pertain to an interview which Mr. Shankar gave to a YouTube channel, Mr. Srinivasan urged the court to quash all 16 of them.Derogatory remarksThe police, in their turn, claimed that the YouTuber had made derogatory remarks against women police personnel in the interview. Mr. Srinivasan countered that his client was merely exercising his right to free speech, for which the State was “not prosecuting, but persecuting him”.On July 18, 2024, the Supreme Court ordered the interim release of Mr. Shankar, who had then been in preventive detention under the Tamil Nadu Goondas Act for since May 2024.The Madras High Court then quashed the State’s order of detention against Mr. Shankar in a detailed judgment on August 9, 2024.