CBCID to dust off criminal appeal pending in HC against ‘Savukku’ Shankar since 2017
The Crime BranchCriminal Investigation Department (CBCID) has decided to dust off a criminal appeal against ‘Savukku’ Shankar, alias A. Shankar of Savukku Media, pending in the Madras High Court 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 AntiCorruption (DVAC) in 2008.
Justice M. Nirmal Kumar has decided to take up for hearing on March 13 the petition filed by the CBCID seeking the leave (permission) of the High Court to prefer the appeal against the judgment 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 assistant in the confidential section of the DVAC’s office in 2008. The prosecution accused him of having been disgruntled due to the denial of a promotion.
According to the Cyber Crime Cell of the CBCID, N. Vijayarajan was serving as the legal advisor to DVAC in 2008. The legal advisor was in possession of some confidential files on his computer. Taking advantage of his absence on April 1, 2008, the respondent had gained unauthorised access to the computer and transferred some audio files from it to a pen drive, the prosecution said. One of the files pertained to a conversation between then DVAC Director S.K. Upadhyay and then Chief Secretary L.K. Tripathy, the details of which were subsequently published in a newspaper and telecast on a Tamil TV news channel on April 14, 2008.
Therefore, the CBCID 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. After a fullfledged trial in which as many as 45 witnesses were examined, the Additional Sessions Court held that the prosecution had not proved the guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Further, the trial court had pointed out that the legal advisor Mr. Vijayarajan, examined as a prosecution witness, had categorically deposed that he was unaware of any unauthorised use of his computer and that it would not be possible for anyone to access his computer, even in his absence. Though the CBCID had preferred an appeal against this verdict, along with a petition seeking the leave of the court to file the appeal, on June 9, 2017, it remained pending without any significant progress till date.