YouTuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar, 5 staff members arrested in Chennai

YouTuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar was arrested from his residence here on Saturday in connection with an alleged assault and extortion case filed by a film producer, a police official said.

Police claimed that Shankar declined to open the door when the investigating officer knocked at his residence here this morning. “He refused to open the door, insisting that the police first speak to his advocates before stepping in,” an official said.

Two police officers could be heard stating that they were willing to provide the details for the arrest and even show the warrant if the particulars were sought in a proper manner by the advocates, in a video that went viral on social media.

Police should not be prevented from discharging their duties, they said in the video.

Five others of the political commentator’s team were also arrested.

Hours before his arrest, Shankar released a video on his social media handle claiming that the police were trying to arrest him in a “false” case filed by a film producer.

“The police issued summons in October end, and I replied stating that the said film producer had never visited my office or that I had sought money to remove a video that allegedly defamed him,” Shankar said in the video.

He further said that the police claimed that he and his team beat up the producer and “snatched” Rs 2 lakh from him and demanded a hefty sum to delete the video. “This is all fabricated and such incidents never happened,” he said.

Shankar alleged that the police were after him at the instigation of a senior police official.

Another video showed the police entering his house by breaking open the front door with the help of fire and rescue service personnel. Shankar could be seen seated calmly on a sofa.

As he was being escorted to the police vehicle, Shankar alleged that the police seized his modem and even mobile phone to find out who were providing him information.

“They ransacked my house. The state government is behind my arrest. It does not want the Savukku Media to function during the upcoming Assembly election,” Shankar told reporters waiting at his residence.

Congress MP from Sivaganga Karti P Chidambaram said on ‘X’ “while I don’t subscribe to or endorse him, this repeated recurring arrests of @SavukkuOfficial @savukku is blatant harassment.” Reacting to the arrest, BJP chief spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathi alleged in a post on social media that the DMK government “unleashed repression and anarchy.” “This is strongly condemnable,” he said.