Background
On August 14, the Supreme Court had issued notice on Shankar’s writ petition, temporarily halting any coercive action related to the 16 FIRs. The court was also informed that on August 12, Shankar was granted bail and scheduled for release at 5 PM, only to be re-arrested at 5:45 PM the same day. The new detention, under the Tamil Nadu Goondas Act, relates to an NDPS case for which Shankar had already received bail four months earlier. Shankar, an independent journalist and YouTuber, was originally arrested on May 4, 2024, following accusations of defamatory remarks against female police officers during an April 30 interview on the YouTube channel RedPix 24×7. The 16 FIRs, filed across multiple districts in Tamil Nadu, all stem from this single interview. In July, the Supreme Court had previously ordered Shankar’s interim release from a prior preventive detention, which was subsequently overturned by the Madras High Court on August 9.
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