Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Vaiko remand extended

By K. Subramanian

KANCHEEPURAM MAY 27. Arguments on the discharge petitions filed by nine MDMK members, including the party general secretary, Vaiko, who were arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, began before L. Rajendran, special judge of the POTA court, at Poonamalle near Chennai today. The judge extended the remand of Mr. Vaiko and others till June 10.

Senior defence counsel, K.S. Dinakaran, submitted before the judge that the investigating agency (State Q Branch CID police) had arrested a ``wrong person'' under the POTA. He said the MDMK district secretary, Bhoominathan, who never addressed the meeting along with Mr. Vaiko, was arrested under the POTA instead of some other Bhoominathan. Even the video clipping, given to the accused along with the charge sheet, did not show Mr. Bhoominathan as having been present at the meeting. The Q Branch CID police, which came to know of its mistake later, did not release Mr. Bhoominathan, but foisted a case on him saying he had arranged and assisted the meeting, he said. Mr. Dinakaran also submitted that the statement made by Mr. Vaiko at the meeting was only a repetition of what he stated in Parliament. ``The court has to take the entire speech into consideration and not one or two sentences here and there and make out a case. Mr. Vaiko had nowhere said that the ban on the LTTE should be lifted or that they should be allowed to operate in this country. Nowhere Mr. Vaiko had supported the LTTE activities in India and never had he canvassed for it in this country.''

By making statements on the Tamil Nadu Assembly resolution against the LTTE, the accused had not committed any offence, he said.

Talking to mediapersons at the POTA court campus, Mr. Vaiko said the MDMK's relationship with the NDA was not affected by the resignation of Mr. Gingee Ramachandran from the post of Union Minister of State for Finance. The MDMK would not ask for the portfolio left by Mr. Ramachandran.

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