The Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) has decided to dust off a criminal appeal pending in the Madras High Court against ‘Savukku’ Shankar alias A. Shankar of Savukku Media, since 2017. The appeal had challenged his acquittal from a case booked for allegedly stealing electronic data from the office of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) in 2008.
Justice M. Nirmal Kumar has decided to take up for hearing, on March 13, the petition filed by the CB-CID seeking the leave (permission) of the High Court to prefer the appeal against the judgement passed by an Additional Sessions Court in Chennai on February 24, 2017. The judge took the call after a Government Advocate (criminal side) said that he was ready for final arguments.
The charge against the respondent was that he had committed the crime while serving as a special assisant in the confidential section of DVAC’s office at its then newly-constructed building in Raja Annamalaipuram in Chennai in 2008. The prosecution accused him of having been disgruntled due to the denial of a promotion to the post of Assistant Section Officer at the Secretariat.
