NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed that multiple FIRs filed against YouTuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar be clubbed together and consolidated for investigation while allowing the probe to proceed in the primary FIR registered on May 3, 2024, at the cyber crime police station, Coimbatore.
While passing the order, a bench of the apex court, led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and also comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar, passed a slew of directions in the plea filed by Shankar.
“123/2024 FIR will continue to be probed. It was registered on May 3, 2024 in Coimbatore. The probe is to be conducted expeditiously. The chargesheet or closure report is to be filed as per law. It is stated that Tiruchy FIR relates to another incident and it shall continue as per law,” the bench said.
Warning Shankar to follow the court’s order strictly, the bench said, “in case the petitioner (Shankar) breached any condition of detention release order, the matter can be brought before us.”
The bench was hearing the challenge to the 16 FIRs filed against Shankar over an online interview.
The petitioner claimed that the state government was filing false cases to arrest him, subjecting him to custodial violence and assault by prison officials, threatening him through ruling party members, placing him under preventive detention under the Goondas Act and others. Advocate Balaji Srinivasan appearing for A Kamala, mother of Shankar, said the YouTuber had been subjected to physical torture and solitary confinement.
‘Detention order absurd’
“The detention order was completely absurd, non-reasoned and blatantly illegal,” he told the court.
Srinivasan alleged that the detention order was the second in a row, and issued merely three days after the first one was quashed by the Madras High Court.
On August 14, in a major relief to Shankar, the Supreme Court Bench led by former CJI D Y Chandrachud had granted him interim relief and stayed all the coercive action against him in 17 FIRs.