Savukku Shankar
Savukku Shankar (Achimuthu Shankar) is a former lower division clerk in the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption, which he joined in 1991.
Notable Whistle Blows
In 2008, he allegedly made public sensational information which included a taped conversation between S. K. Upadhyay, then Director of Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption, and L. K. Tripathi, then Chief Secretary, through the Deccan Chronicle English daily newspaper.[3] Following the leak of sensitive information in public, the then Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government of the Tamil Nadu state appointed a commission headed by Judge P. Shanmugam to probe the leak. Shankar was found guilty by the commission of inquiry. However, Shankar denied the allegations and said the charges were false and he was contesting them in court. He also said that he was made to face third-degree torture and was forced to bear witness against some officials. He was later released on bail.[3]
In mid-2010, he published a blog post about information collected through the Right to Information Act and he was arrested on the charges of road rage the next day. He said, "The next day I was arrested on false charges of road rage. I was expecting them to arrest me. They did not disappoint".[3][2]
He later upgraded his blog into a website after receiving encouragement from readers.[2] In 2011, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government lost the polls to form the government. Shankar opined that even though the new government, many aspects related to social welfare still do not reach the public.[3] He said,
Even within the media, there is a lot of corruption. Who is going to write about it? I will.[3]
Shankar is an admirer of V. Prabhakaran, chief of LTTE. The website had a picture of V. Prabhakaran on one side and a picture of a cowboy with a whip on the other side of the header.[2] He continued to publish articles along with contesting his suspension from the Department of Vigilance and Anti-corruption. He is called the Tamil's Julian Assange.[1][3]
The website was the first to release the 2G tapes ahead of Prashant Bhushan. Audio of conversation between, Kalaignar TV MD, Sharad Kumar, and former TN Intelligence Chief Jaffer Sait IPS.[12]
The website was the first to expose the arithmetical errors in the judgment of Justice C.R. Kumarasamy, acquitting Selvi Jayalalitha, CM of Tamil Nadu in the month of May 2015 [13]
Arrests
On 15 September 2022, Madurai High Court sentenced 6 months of jail for Savukku Shankar for contempt of the court.
References
This article "Savukku Shankar" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Savukku Shankar. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
