Madras High Court grants leave to CB-CID to file appeal against Savukku Shankar’s acquittal in electronic data theft case

Madras High Court grants leave to CB-CID to appeal acquittal of YouTuber 'Savukku' Shankar in data theft case.

The Madras High Court on June 4 granted leave (permission) to the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) to file an appeal against the acquittal of YouTuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar alias A. Shankar from a case booked against him for allegedly stealing electronic data from the office of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) in 2008.

Justice M. Nirmal Kumar allowed an application filed by the CB-CID in 2017 seeking the leave of the High Court to file the appeal against a judgement passed by an Additional Sessions Court in Chennai on February 24, 2017, acquitting the YouTuber from the theft case.

In March this year, the CB-CID decided to dust off the leave petition pending for last seven years.

The charge against the YouTuber was that he had committed the crime when he was serving as a special assistant in the confidential section of DVAC’s office at its then-newly constructed building in Raja Annamalaipuram in Chennai in 2008. The prosecution had accused him of being disgruntled due to the denial of a promotion to the post of Assistant Section Officer.

According to the CB-CID, one N. Vijayarajan was serving as the legal advisor to DVAC in 2008, and his office was located on the ground floor of the building. The legal advisor was in possession of confidential files on his computer. Taking advantage of the advisor’s absence on April 1, 2008, the YouTuber had gained access to that computer and transferred some audio files to a pen drive titled ‘Sujatha,’ the prosecution claimed.

One of the files contained a conversation between then DVAC Director S.K. Upadhyay and then Chief Secretary L.K. Tripathy. The details of the conversation were subsequently published in a newspaper and telecast on a Tamil TV news channel on April 14, 2008.

The CB-CID had booked him under Sections 66, 70 and 72 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, following a complaint lodged by Home Secretary S. Malathi on July 17, 2008.