CHENNAI: A group of more than 20 vandals, suspected to be sanitary workers, barged into the house of YouTuber Savukku Shankar in Kilpauk on Monday morning and dumped sewage inside his house, besides allegedly assaulting his mother who was alone at that time.
After Shankar blamed Greater Chennai Police (GCP) Commissioner A Arun for the attack, a CSR booked on the basis of a complaint filed by A Kamala, Shankar’s 70-year-old mother, has been transferred to the CB-CID as per DGP Shankar Jiwal’s order on Monday evening.
In her complaint filed with the Kilpauk police station on Monday, Kamala said the group attacked and verbally abused her, broke the backdoor to enter the house and vandalised it. Besides opposition parties AIADMK and BJP, DMK ally VCK, too, has condemned the attack.
Group initiated video call through mom’s phone, issued death threats: Shankar
Kamala in her police complaint said the incident could be because of her son’s recent YouTube video in which he had “exposed” corruption in a government subsidy scheme for procurement of sewage trucks. When TNIE reached out to Commissioner Arun for his comments, he said a formal response will be issued.
Videos that were part of a series of posts shared on ‘X’ by Shankar showed CCTV footage of the group leaving a trail of sewage inside and outside the house.
Speaking to TNIE, Shankar said he could confirm that at least one member of the group that vandalised his house belonged to the city corporation.
While Corporation Commissioner J Kumaragurubaran did not respond to requests for a comment, senior metro water officials said that while a probe is on, preliminary inquiries ruled out involvement of any staff of the Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board in the attack. According to Shankar, upon receiving the news of the attack, he attempted to contact his mother.
However, the group allegedly initiated a video call with him through his mother’s phone and issued death threats to him. Shankar further claimed in his post that when he contacted the police control room, a sub-inspector and a constable arrived at the scene and engaged in discussions with the group.
The group then staged a protest, demanding the arrest of Savukku Shankar. A police source indicated that the attack was likely motivated by anger over Shankar’s alleged derogatory remarks on sanitary workers in one of his videos. The source added that sanitary workers are also planning to file an official complaint against him.
VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan said in a statement that the disgraceful incident was an attempt to tarnish the DMK government’s image. “We urge the Tamil Nadu government to initiate severe action against those involved,” he said. AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, in a statement, said, “No one who has faith in democracy can tolerate this.
This is the height of anarchy and this has happened in the state where the DMK government claims that rule of law prevails.” State BJP president K Annamalai said the DMK government has been continuously indulging in activities such as using the police to intimidate and arrest people under Goondas Act for voicing their opinion on the incompetence of the government in maintaining law and order. TVK, NTK and AMMK have also condemned the incident.