Shankar gets interim relief from top court

OBSERVING that a person's liberty is involved, the Supreme Court on Thursday granted YouTuber Savukku Shankar interim release until the Madras High Court decides on the plea against his preventive detention.

- SUCHITRA KALYAN MOHANTY

Shankar has been in preventive detention under the Goondas Act for the last two months. Despite the apex court's verdict, Shankar will not be walking out of prison as he has been held in multiple cases.

"Do you sincerely believe that there should be preventive detention? This is not an ordinary civil dispute. This is preventive detention. Somebody's liberty is involved," the two-judge bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah asked the TN government while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by A Kamala, the YouTuber's mother, challenging the wrongful detention of her son. She alleged that the state government had curtailed his freedom of speech and expression so that he could not challenge the government.