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Tamil Nadu
By J. Venkatesan
The Committee, comprising Justice Arun B. Saharya, former Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court; M.U. Rehman, IAS (retd.), former Secretary to Government of India and Arvind S. Inamdar, IPS (retd.), former Adviser to the Uttar Pradesh Governor had earlier written to 14 States, including Tamil Nadu, requesting them to send information regarding cases registered under POTA in the respective States. According to highly-placed sources in the committee, though the details were sought some time ago only Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh had come out with the details of arrests under POTA. Tamil Nadu is one of the States where a number of cases have been registered under POTA. Those arrested under POTA include the MDMK general secretary, Vaiko, P. Nedumaran and the Editor of Tamil bi-weekly Nakkeeran, R.R. Gopal. Besides looking into the details of the States, the committee was also looking into complaints of misuse of POTA received directly from the victims and interested parties and the views of the respective States had been sought on these complaints. The Committee, which has so far been operating from the residence of Justice Saharya, has been allotted an office in Vigyan Bhawan here but the Government is yet to provide infrastructure and necessary secretarial staff. Sources said that renovation of the office would soon be completed and the committee was expected to commence its work shortly. If the review the committee were to come to a conclusion that POTA had been misused or abused in a particular case or cases, it could recommend the release of the victims and the decision would be communicated to the State immediately. Such a decision would be final and binding on the special POTA courts dealing with these cases. The committee would also ensure that any officer who exercised powers maliciously or with malafide intentions is punished and that compensation is awarded to a person who had been corruptly or maliciously proceeded against under POTA. Sources pointed out that it had been made clear in POTA itself that "any police officer who exercises powers corruptly or maliciously, knowing that there are no reasonable grounds for proceeding under this Act, shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to two years, or with fine or with both.'' The committee while making a comprehensive review of the use of the Act so far in various States was empowered to give its findings and suggestions for removing shortcomings, if any, in the implementation of the Act and shall suggest measures to ensure that the provisions of POTA were invoked for combating terrorism only and not to settle scores with political opponents.
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