Apologists Beware, Savukku Is Watching You !

Like subaltern history, subaltern journalism too has many supporters. Talk of Mayavati’s corruption, they will say, ‘Oh come on, why do you target her, after all that is incipient Dalit leadership...’  

Journalist Sam Rajappa

Raise your voice against DMK chief Karunanidhi’s misdeeds, there will be ‘tut, tut’s all round. ‘Ouch these are things best left unsaid...After all he represents the rebellion of the long-oppressed non-Brahmin castes.”

Damn that Azam Khan, they will roar back in fury, “You are anti-muslim,” and so on.

Criticism, if any, always in sotto voce and always taking care to provide enough loop holes for the accused.

In that unflattering tradition comes this pathetic defence of the late Dalit judge Ashok Kumar.

Markandey Katju and the curious case of Ashok Kumar

Sam Rajappa, a veteran Chennai-based journalist, starts off saying “In Tamil Nadu, it is easier for a Dalit to go through the eye of a needle than to become a judge of the Madras High Court.”

Perhaps Mr Rajappa, once an advisor to that contemptible Don Quixote of Indian politics, Subramnyam Swamy, doesn’t know the state of affairs in Tamil Nadu.

Where else but in the august portals of the Madras High Court can a sitting Judge call the media to his office and complain that he is being discriminated against? Where else will a judge go to the Chief Justice's chambers and threaten him with dire consequences if he is not given a portfolio of his choice? And get away with it all because he is a Dalit ?  

Justice CS Karnan, a man not unknown to controversies, questions collegium selection, calls it ‘unfair’ 

If Justice C.S.Karnan is setting new bench marks now, the late Ashok Kumar too had in his own way !

He was selected as a direct District Judge in 1987 against the quota for the Scheduled Castes (SCs). When he was about to be sworn in, Ziaudeen, a Chennai-based advocate, filed a PIL questioning his selection under the quota.

Late Justice Ashok Kumar 

Ashok Kumar was born to Christian parents - Santiago and Saveri Ammal in 1947, the petition said and his subsequent ‘conversion’ to Hinduism was purely notional.

The Dalit Christians in Tamil Nadu are not eligible for reservations for the SCs, but classified under the Most Backward Class category.

To circumvent such a handicap, many Dalit Christians seek to hide their religious identity and succeed in their jobs or seats in educational institutions under the SC quota.

Time and again election winners will be challenged by the losers on the ground they had falsified their religious origins and win their case too!

Our Ashok Kumar too had converted to Hinduism when he was 28 years old, allegedly in a sudhi ceremony performed by the Arya Samaj.

Incidentally post such conversions with an eye on reservations, those who so convert would continue to be practising Christians for all practical purposes. So was the case with Ashok Kumar too.

He married Ebi, a Christian, on 9 September 1973, whereas he had allegedly converted to Hinduism on 11 April 1971.

Again all his three children have Christian names viz. Augustin Baskar, Edwin Prabakar and Bobby Arun. In his PIL, advocate Ziaudeen also averred that Ashok Kumar was a member of the parish of St. Antony's Church in Alavanthakulam (district may be mentioned here) and that he had been visiting and donating regularly to the Church.

Justice Subashan Reddy

But the then Chief Justice Subashan Reddy, who (in) famously upheld the off-with-their-heads order of Jayalaltihaa government, sacking thousands of employees at one go, dismissed the PIL, shrugging away the facts placed before him as of little consequence. In a way Justice Reddy facilitated the subsequent elevation of Ashok Kumar as a High Court Judge.

Sam Rajappa does not go into these issues at all, but profusely sheds crocodile tears over the plight of the Dalits and then goes to ‘show’ that Ashok Kumar had the courage to take on the high and mighty and hence deserves our respect.

"Ashok Kumar became the principal sessions judge, Chennai, at the turn of this millennium (Everything regarding this judge who rose from the lowest of the law is stated with a grand sweep !) On 8 February, 2001, a man called SP Shenbagamoorthy filed a complaint before Ashok Kumar that MK Stalin, then Mayor of Chennai belonging to the DMK, had amassed wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income.

“Instead of waiting for a summons, Stalin appeared before the judge and filed an affidavit. An inquiry by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) was ordered by the court. The DVAC report said that no prima facie case was found and the case was dismissed."

So Stalin had nothing to hide. And Ashok Kumar had no bias. See how it all turned out to be in the end.

Ashok Kumar himself would not have minded the DVAC conclusions one way or another, he moved on, always scrupulously respectful of the law, Sam seems to imply.

I remember that enquiry held during my days in DVAC. The petitioner Sambanda Moorthy was an ADMK stooge who wanted to gain popularity. Pictures of the interior decor and furniture in Stalin's house were published in a fashion magazine. Sambandamoorthy based his complaint only on this magazine, without doing any groundwork and filed a complaint. Since it was election time, Sambandamoorthy got the wide publicity he required.

Remember it was the DMK rule and so the DVAC acted swiftly and filed a closure report. So everyone was happy including our very Dalit-solicitous editor.

Let us also tell him that right from the beginning Ashok Kumar had acted true to his character. An inspector of police as caught red handed while receiving bribe, and arrested by DVAC. But in an attempt to create an alibi for himself, he had a back-dated telegram sent to make it look as if he was on casual leave on the day of the trap. But that dirty trick was found out, and a separate case registered against the advocate who engineered such a devious plan, our very own Ashok Kumar and two telegraph employees. All the three were convicted "till the rise of the court."

Also there were talks in the corridors of power that it was Justice Ashok Kumar who helped in the acquittal of M.K’s colourful elder son Alagiri in the T.Krishnan murder trial, conducted in the Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh. 

In the circumstances, advancing any arguments on behalf of Ashok Kumar that he is a Dalit is nothing but vintage Karunanidhi trick, of a piece with his Dravidian legacy.

And the delicious Andhra connection spills over into another story !

Justice Katju has noted, "Throughout my stay as Chief Justice, there was never any problem as she respected the independence of the judiciary. The other political party (DMK) through their representatives put tremendous pressure on me to recommend certain names for judgeship whom I found to be totally undeserving. 

“Some of these persons were never seen in courts, though technically they were enrolled as lawyers. These were obviously men of that political party which wanted to pack the Madras High Court with its men, but I refused to succumb to this pressure.”

Sam Rajappa retorts, "Ruling parties trying to get their men into higher judiciary is not uncommon. It is extraordinary for an opposition party, which the DMK was when Katju was the CJ, to try to pack the High Court with its men."

Ha, ha, how naive can one be? Or disingenuous? The power enjoyed by DMK in the UPA-1 was phenomenal, everyone knows after all. Karunanidhi went to the extent of revealing the 'secret understanding document' with Janardhan Reddy to the press when DMK was denied the Shipping and Road Transport portfolio.

(Whatever portfolios finally he wangled, his men and women milked dry, plunging the Manmohan Singh government’s credibility to rock bottom eventually, a key factor behind the Congress’s debacle in the last elections.)

Justice P.K.Misra

Justice P.K.Mishra who has served in Madras HC, indirectly confirms that Karunanidhi was indeed successful in packing the Madras HC with his chamchas. Mishra records his anguish thus - "Similarly, when I had opposed the appointment of another judge, even that candidate was confirmed as a full-fledged judge and later transferred to another HC. My views on that judge came true when we saw his subsequent judgments in several cases including granting of bail in the Satyam case on so called medical grounds.''  ToI news item

The Judge mentioned by him is none other than Justice Raja Elango, who is now serving in Andhra Pradesh HC.

And pray who is this august Lordship? Before his swearing-in and after the warrant of appointment had been issued, he called on Karunanidhi in the company of another nominee, Justice C T Selvam. Never before in the annals of the Indian judiciary had propriety taken such a knock.

The photograph of that momentous meeting was brazenly released through the state Information department.  

  

(Back in 1996 the then Chief Justice and his family were photographed viewing from within their bungalow the grand baraat of J Jayalalithaa’s now disowned foster son back in 1996. The ostentatious marriage is a key item in the list of corruption charges that Jayalalitha is facing in the meandering Bangalore trial. Well the two are not the same, but ugly nexus shouldn’t be missed on anyone.)

To get back to the story of the duo who made a dubious record in judicial history, while one has been castigated for what he did or did not in the notorious Satyam case, the other is more familiar to the Savukku readers.

C.T. Selvam continues to prove his loyalty by dismissing petitions filed against Karunanidhi's personal security officers, his then close aide and Intelligence Chief Jaffer Sait, and his daughter Kanimozhi.

He also initiated suo motu complaint against his brother with whom he has property disputes. (Our previous blog deals with the issue at length.)

Further Sam Rajappa has also got his facts wrong by mentioning "No one was surprised when Katju constituted a two-member commission comprising Justices Jaisimha Babu and Lakshmanan to inquire into alleged corruption of Ashok Kumar." Justices Jayasimma Babu and Lakshmanan were not serving in Madras HC when Justice Katju was CJ!

Rajappa goes on to claim, "Katju’s story about a DMK minister at the Centre informing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that his party would topple the government unless Ashok Kumar was made a permanent judge is pure fiction."

But what you offer as an alternative narrative is even more fictional, Mr Sam Rajappa !

"What forced Manmohan Singh to ask the CJI to reconsider the collegium’s decision not to confirm Ashok Kumar as permanent judge was a threat by 18 SC/ST MPs cutting across party affiliation to pull down the UPA government if justice was denied to the latter," you claim.

But no such encounter was reported in the media nor since. Besides no SC/ST MP would go to the extent of pulling down the government for the sake of a fellow Dalit. If a government falls it means fresh elections, and how many at any point of time would be prepared to face such uncertainties?

Besides the way our wonderful MPs offered themselves for sale and voted in favour of the UPA-1 during the no-confidence motion following withdrawal of support by the left is recent history.

That Sam could so audaciously seek to palm off such a cock-and-bull stories on the unwary reader is predictable but - he has an unenviable reputation of putting out sensational reports every now and then without a shred of evidence to back his claims. After all he was a close buddy of that loathsome Swami.

And look at this gem - "During its entire nine-year partnership with the Congress in the UPA, only once it threatened to pull out. That was over the civil war in Sri Lanka. When it was made clear to the DMK that the Congress was determined to help Sri Lanka annihilate the LTTE, it climbed down."

Now if it was serious about its Lankan Tamil concerns, why should the DMK have retracted in the face a “determined Congress?” If anything it should have made the DMK patriarch even more determined to challenge the Manmohan Singh government. 

No the ever loyal ally promptly caved in and turned tail, after making the usual noise. We know anyway Karunanidhi has made a life-time career of pseudo-Tamil nationalism. His four-hour fast between breakfast and lunch became a story of universal derision. And he sealed an electoral pact with Congress even while the Lankan Tamils were being massacred in the killing fields of Mullivaikkal.

That Sam has the gall to sing praise of MK’s Tamil concerns, in the manner of many other courtiers, brings the never high credibility of Sam Rajappa a few notches down further.

We would like to stress yet again that the timing of Katju's revelations might be suspicious and debatable, but the facts are not. 

By Savukku

Media Deafeningly Silent As High Court Judge Runs Amok

At a time Markandey Katju has turned the spotlight on corruption in judiciary, the way a serving judge of the Madras High Court seems engaged in gross misuse of power for selfish ends should be a great story. Newspapers and TV channels should be falling over each other to get to the bottom of it all.

But no, Justce C T Selvam continues to proclaim he is a law unto himself and imperiously orders the executive to shut down this popular blog Savukku that keeps exposing him.

In this latest saga, the venerable judge has issued a contempt notice to his own cousin Martin who has accused him of misusing his powers in an intra-famly property dispute.

Even more interesting the judge has the gall to take up the case when it is allotted to another judge, still no one seems to be objecting except for the aggrieved cousin.

A.T.Panneerselvam in the left.

A.T.Panneerselvam (on the left) was a leader of the Justice Party of the pre-Independence days that fought Brahmin domination in various spheres in the then Madras presidency. The well-known iconoclast Periyar E.V.Ramasamy and his Dravidian movement could be said to be an offshoot of the Justice Party.

You can get some idea of the late Mr Panneerselvam here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._T._Panneerselvam

Most Justice Party leaders were big feudal lords, and so was Panneerselvam who hailed from Thanjavur district – generally considered the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu though the continuing Cauvery dispute has meant a steep fall in rice production in the area.

To get back to the story, Panneerselvam dies in an air-crash in 1940.   He left behind three sons and three daughters.

Apparently the sons divided the landed properties among themselves, and the sisters  didn’t object. 

The lands still with the Panneerselvam family are now under the control of  Justice C T Selvam, his sister Fathima, the grandchildren of Sir A T Panneerselvam through his second son Albert Arulselvam and Martin Selvam, born to another son of the late Justice Party leader.

Now the legal heirs to the daughters of who migrate abroad suddenly descend on Thanjavur and stake their claim three years ago. For reasons not clear, they confront only Martin Selvam not CT Selvam over the issue.

Anyway we don’t have the judge’s version of the story. What is known is that Martin resists his two cousins from Australia.

He says the lands have been leased out. In any case he has spent a lot of money in developing and maintain them. So if the new claimants want them, they should compensate him adequately.

As the issue goes to the court, the Australian cousins complain to local police of harassment and intimidation by Martin. They do so in such a fashion that a lot of Martin’s time is taken up in fighting out the cases and appearing before the police.

When in January last year, paddy was ready for harvest, the dispute further intensifies. A local revenue official orders the harvest be conducted under the supervision of a designated official and the money realized from the sale of the produce deposited with the treasury till the property dispute is sorted out.

But Jerome Royappan, one of the two from Australia, appeals to the High Court against the revenue official’s ruling, and Justice Rajendran orders the harvest be carried out by Jerome Royappan under the supervision of a lawyer deputed by the court and police grant necessary protection.

Over how much land the court permitted Jerome Royappan to harvest, it is not clear. We were unable to contact him. But those speaking on behalf of Martin Selvam claimed while the dispute was only over 11.20 acres of land, Jerome was able to harvest the produce over as many as 78 acres that day, because he enjoyed the full support of the local police.

Martin was not heard when Justice Rajendran issued his orders and when Jerome’s men (and women) get into the land to harvest, Martin is helpless, it is claimed. But he manages to videograph the entire process.

Now Martin learns that Justice Selvam had been in touch with Jerome Royappan right through the day of harvest. He had made several calls from two telephones listed under the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court.

So Martin moves the Madras High Court demanding calls records of the two landlines of Madurai bench, 0452-2433237 and 0452-243328 and makes Justice Selvam one of the respondents in the case.

Contempt order issued by Justice C.T.Selvam

The case goes before Justice Nagamauthu who adjourns the case to a future date, but inexplicably Justice Selvam too calls for the records of the case filed by Martin and initiates contempt of court proceedings against him!

He directs that Martin present himself before the Selvam court the very next day. Martin’s counsel appears before Selvam but and faults his orders on various counts, but the judge shrugs them off and orders that Martin  appear before him during the next hearing slated for July 10.

Again Martin’s side argues neither civil or criminal contempt can be made out against him and that in any case when Mr Selvam himself is a respondent, how could he take suo motu cognizance and initiate contempt proceedings. As per norms, it is the Chief Justice who can decide which judge can hear such a case.

But an angry Selvam dismisses the contentions and issues a non-bailable warrant of arrest against Martin and orders that he be produced before the court on. But on appeal, a division bench of the Madras High Court stays the contempt proceedings.

Looks like Jerome Royappan, the Australian cousin has the full backing of  the judiciary and the local police.
Now whatever the justness or otherwise of his claims and Martin’s, clearly it is a matter to be adjudicated upon as per law. But how could Selvam could bring the full weight of the court on one of the two contending parties.

More important how could he arrogate to himself the right to hear a case against himself and issue contempt notice?

It is this self-same Selvam who ordered closure of the Savukku blog site in when hearing a case of defamation.

Savukku has published pictures of Selvam with DMK chief Karunanidhi and also noted his dubious rulings when Karunanidhi’s grandson sought a bail in the granite scam that rocked the case last year.

A key accused, a well-known mining baron, is still in prison – he has spent months there, while the case has not reached the trial stage yet. Dayanidhi meanwhile is busy making films.

Savukku has highlighted many of the commissions and omissions of Justice Selvam on various occasions, and has been slapped with closure notice.

But those behind Savukku have enough ingenuity to keep the blog up and running even though the cybercrime police has been shutting down one site after another. The cat and mouse game still goes on while a public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court challenging Selvam’s orders. That case is also dragging along..

The point is when Selvam is the person charged with unethical conduct by a website, he turns on the site itself and seeks to close it down for good.

When his cousin charges with him with misuse of judicial powers, Selvam wants him hauled up for contempt.
The media is silent and there is no word from the Registry on what is happening.

It may also be recalled here another judge of this court, S Karnan, chooses to hear a mineral-sand-mining case listed under another judge and has reserved orders !

Still the happenings in the Tamil wonderland do not evoke the curiosity of anyone here. Can it get any curiouser than this?

Savukku’s relentless battle for justice

We have lost count of the number of times the authorities have sought to clamp down on our website(s). 

We kept coming back and catching the vested interests off guard. But this time it is our turn to be caught unprepared, it looks like. All our registered domains are now choked.

Apparently all ending with “vukku” have been targeted. And as mentioned earlier, one of our well-wishers,  who was helping us out of goodwill, has also been arrested. So for now,  the authorities might have emerged triumphant – well, savukku the name, currently stands blocked.

So be it. Still we have this blog spot we had used earlier on. How long we don’t know. But trust us we will be up and running in some form or other. We refuse to be silenced.

WE DARE FOR WE ARE CONCERNED.

Started as a blog (savukku.blogspot.com) in 2009. It is a collective effort of people concerned with social issues and are willing fight all odds in their quest for justice.

The blog was started only after all efforts to publish documents against Mr Jaffer Sait, a senior police official, could not be published in any media.  

Achimuthu Shankar, one of our longest-serving contributors, was arrested, after an article against the then Intelligence chief Jaffer Sait was carried.  After the arrest, the site’s popularity went soaring. Connected news item.  

  

Savukku was the first site to expose Housing Board’s discretionary quota scam.  Subsequently, a case was registered by the DVAC against Jaffer Sait and Karunanidhi's Personal Security Officers, based on the documents published by Savukku.   

Exposed  the avowedly spiritual outfit the Isha group's building violations

Continuously highlighted the rot in judiciary and in the state police department, inviting the ire of many judges and senior police officials.

But the present developments could be traced to an article carried by us in May last year on how an advocate named Mahalakshmi was harassing an in-law of hers, misusing her contacts at various levels. She goes on to file a complaint with police and also files a defamation case in a magistrate Court.

She further seeks a direction from the High Court to the police to register an FIR against Shankar, and it is granted.

Subsequently, she files a petition for direction to police to investigate the case properly.   After six months, the matter comes up before the High Court again, this time with Justice CT Selvam presiding.

It is at this juncture Savukku gets hold of the now (in)famous 2G-related audio tapes. Getting whiff of the explosive scoop, lot of persons contact us and seek to alternately coax and intimidate us. Lot of money was also dangled before us in an attempt to stall the publication of the transcript of the tapes.

But we are not to be dissuaded, and the expose sets off shock waves across the nation.

Justice C T Selvam orders arrest of the designer of the website, on the very day of the publication of the transcripts.  ToI news item. 

  

Also Achimuthu Shankar, identified as the person running/managing Savukku, is ordered to be arrested by Justice Selvam. The judge would not let go of the case thereafter.

Just as the apex was monitoring such crucial cases like Godhra riots or 2G spectrum, he monitors closely the developments and observes at one stage that given the sheer effrontery of Shankar, any number of cases can be filed against him, hauling him up separately for each and every article published by him, since the site was founded.

  

We have repeatedly published this picture and also pointed out that it was he who literally bailed out DMK chief M Karunanidhi’s grandson, an accused in the multi-crore granite mining scam. When all others were promptly arrested and had to spend varying times behind bars pending trial, Durai Dayanidhi alone could get away without spending an hour in police lock-up.

He was granted anticipatory bail by this same Selvam even when he had failed to surrender to the police when an earlier anticipatory bail plea was turned down by another judge of the Madras High Court. Times of India News Item

 It is this order we never fail to hammer home to our readers.  An unfazed Selvam orders blocking of the website savukku.net,  though advocate Mahalakshmi never asked for such an order.

Then we became Savukku.in and when blocked, we were newsavukku.com,  and then we turned into newsavukku.org.

Simultaneously we were also running mirror sites named ctselvam.com and ctselvam.net, just to express our scorn over the pettiness as seen in the repeated gag orders.  Justice Selvam went to the extent of issuing directions to the organisation National Cyber Safety and  Security Standards whose job is to safeguard the nation from cyber threats !!!.  Link 

Then we come to know that Justice Selvam is involved in a raging property dispute and has sought to haul up a cousin of his for contempt of court, because he dared make him an accused in one of his petitions, charging His Lordship with gross misuse of his powers.

We dared when the rest of the media won’t touch the story.

Promptly Pothi Kalimuthu is arrested and remanded; all domains are blocked.   The New Indian Express news item. 

A Public Interest Litigation has been filed against the closure of savukku by journalist T.N.Gopalan, and the same is pending before the Madras High Court.  

We might have run out of luck for the moment, but we don’t run out of ideas Justice Selvam.

We will fight back. 

SAVUKKU EDITORIAL TEAM