The Hindu : Charge sheet filed against Vaiko, at last

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 31, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Charge sheet filed against Vaiko, at last

By R.K. Radhakrishnan

The MDMK general secretary, Vaiko, who was produced in the POTA special court at Poonamallee, on Monday. — Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

CHENNAI Dec. 30 . The `Q' Branch CID today filed a charge sheet against the MDMK general secretary, Vaiko, 172 days after he had been remanded to custody under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, for an alleged pro-LTTE speech he made at Tirunamgalam near Madurai. Eight other party leaders, Veera Ilavarasan, Bhoominathan, Madurai Ganesan, Alagu Sundaram, P.S. Manian, Pulavar Sivanthiappan, Ganesamurthy and Nagarajan, who were arrested earlier, were also named in the charge sheet.

The `Q' Branch seeks to prosecute them under Sections 21 (2) (arranging, managing or assisting in arranging or managing a meeting with the knowledge that is for supporting a terrorist organisation and furthering its activities, or that it is to be addressed by a person who belongs or professes to belong to a terrorist organisation) and 21(3) (addressing a meeting for encouraging support for a terrorist organisation or to further its activities) of the POTA. (Mr. Vaiko has challenged Section 21 of the POTA in the Supreme Court, saying it is violative of Article 19 (freedom of speech) and Article 21(right to life and liberty) of the Constitution.)

The 518-page charge sheet details Mr. Vaiko's open support to the LTTE since 1992, cites 115 witnesses and 154 statements of witnesses, and lists 106 documents, 43 individual exhibits and 23 material objects.

L. Rajendran, special judge for POTA cases, said he would need some time to go through the voluminous charge sheet. He could pass orders on the charge sheet by evening, but counsel for Mr. Vaiko, Devadas, said the court could post the case to another date. At this, Mr. Rajendran said that as Mr. Vaiko had to attend a case in another court tomorrow, he was posting it to January 2.

Later, talking to newsmen, Mr. Vaiko said the signature campaign launched by the party, condemning his arrest, evoked an overwhelming response. The MDMK was ascertaining whether the BJP State general secretary, H. Raja, had made a statement that the party would not sign the memorandum. If this constituted the official view of the State unit, despite the national leaders condemning his arrest under the POTA, the MDMK leadership would meet to decide on the future course, said Mr. Vaiko. Asked whether the DMK ``model of snapping ties'' with the State BJP was an option, he said he would not like to elaborate.

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