The Hindu : SC to hear scribe's plea on June 5

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Friday, May 30, 2003

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SC to hear scribe's plea on June 5

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI May 29. The Supreme Court will hear on June 5 an application from the Editor of the Tamil bi-weekly, Nakkeeran, R.R. Gopal, for a direction to entrust to the CBI the investigations into the circumstances leading to his arrest and registration of cases against him, including the one under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA).

A vacation Bench, comprising Justice N. Santosh Hegde and Justice Shivaraj V. Patil, set the hearing for June 5 to enable counsel for the Tamil Nadu Government to take instructions after senior counsel for the petitioner, T.R. Andhyarujina, pleaded for early listing of the matter. The court had on May 7 issued notice to the State Government on the application and given liberty to the petitioner to move the vacation court. Accordingly, a mention was made for early listing of the case.

While the State Government, in its response, denied the petitioner's allegations, Mr. Gopal, in a rejoinder, reiterated the charge that a false case under the POTA had been registered against him.

Mr. Andhyarujina submitted that the Editor was a victim of vendetta by the State Government and that one case after another were being filed against him. Even cases dating back to 1998 were being reopened and he was being falsely included as an accused.

A case pertaining to a missing man had been converted into one of murder and the Editor had been arrested on the basis of a confession made by a person five years after the registration of the case.

In the same case, first sedition charges were invoked and later the POTA charges were added.

Counsel said that till the matter was disposed of by the apex court, the State should be restrained from filing the chargesheet, as the whole petition would become infructuous.

In his application, Mr. Gopal had submitted that the continued harassment at the hands of police, the way in which he was being tortured and the way things were being planted, indicated that no proper investigation would be done by the State police.

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