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YouTuber Savukku accuses Congress chief over ‘attack’ on his residence
A group of 20 people, some of them dressed as sanitary workers, allegedly barged into Shankar’s residence and dumped sewage waste and human faeces and also verbally abused his mother
Whistleblower turned controversial Youtuber A Shankar, known popularly as ‘Savukku’ Shankar, on Tuesday blamed Tamil Nadu Congress chief G Selvaperunthagai for an attack on his house after he exposed an alleged scam in a central and state government-sponsored scheme for Dalits. Selvaperunthagai denied the charges, while Shankarshut down his Youtube channel ‘Savukku Media’ on the same day.
On Monday, a group of 20 people, some of them dressed as sanitary workers, barged into Shankar’s residence in Chennai’s Kilpauk when his mother A Kamala was alone and dumped sewage waste and human faeces in the residence, and verbally abused her, Shankar alleged. Visuals uploaded by Shankar on X also showed these workers calling him on video from his mother’s house and abusing him. Shankar accused the Greater Chennai police commissioner A Arun of mishandling the case. Tamil Nadu’s director general of police Shankar Jiwal on Monday transferred the case to the CB-CID.
The attack came into the spotlight since Shankar has been a strident critic of the state’s DMK government and had been jailed for months in various cases including for his derogatory remarks on women police personnel and for possessing drugs. Shankar has been out on bail since January.
While the attackers claimed that they retaliated since Shankar had spoken ill of them, he said that he was speaking of a corruption that adversely affected sanitation workers. “I broke a scam in the distribution of vehicles fitted with jet-routing machines to Dalit entrepreneurs. The scheme is sponsored by both the central and state governments,” Shankar told news agency ANI.
“It’s meant for poor Dalits and scavengers, but most of the beneficiaries are above the poverty line.” He charged the Chennai police and the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) chief for the attack. “After I broke this scam, the Chennai City police registered an FIR...After they failed in their effort to book me for exposing this scam, they adopted this method...I directly charge TNCC President K Selvaperunthagai as the person who has organised this attack.” Shankar alleged that Selvaperunthagai had a contract for this project with the Greater Chennai Corporation and that a state Congress supporter had broadcast the attack live on Facebook. Congress is the DMK’s main ally in Tamil Nadu.
Selvaperunthagai said he would take legal action against the allegations. “I have condemned this attack against him and neither me nor the Congress have nothing to do with it,” Selvaperunthagai. “He (Savukku) has a hidden agenda. He wants to make these allegations against me to try and remove me from the post so that someone he wants can become the state Congress chief so it can benefit him. Everyone, our leaders in Delhi also know what he is trying to do. If he has found some corruption, he should file a case in court.” Several other Congress leaders including MPs Karti Chidambaram and Sashikanth Senthil too had condemned the attack in Shankar’s house.
Shankar also announced on X that he is shutting down operations of his Youtube Channel Savukku Media, two days after he alleged that the state government is using the Chennai police to muzzle his channel “by repeatedly slapping cases and issuing summons” to his staff. “The attack in my house is a major reason for me to shut down the channel…I feel like I don’t have to run this media (channel) with my mother’s life in danger….This is not my loss but the society’s loss,” Shankar said. His channel had 2.7 lakhsubscribers.
