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Defence grills witness in Vaiko case

By Our Staff Reporter

KANCHEEPURAM SEPT.15. Cross-examination of the chief prosecution witness, N. Thangavel, then inspector of Tirumangalam police station, near Madurai, in the case of arrest of the MDMK general secretary, Vaiko, and eight other party leaders, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, continued for the fifth day today before L. Rajendran, judge, special court at Poonamalle, near Chennai.

Senior defence counsel, G. Devadoss, grilled Mr. Thangavel on the June 29, 2002 meeting addressed by Mr. Vaiko and the other MDMK leaders at Tirumangalam.

The witness said that except Mr. Vaiko, he did not know the others who addressed the meeting.

Except P.S. Maniam, all the other accused — Mr. Vaiko, Ganesamurthy, Veera Ilavarasan, Bhoominathan, Pulavar Sevanthiappan, Madurai Ganesan, Alagusundaram and Nagarajan — were brought from the Vellore central prison amid tight security to the court in the morning. But the cross-examination began only around 3 p.m. after the defence lawyers came from the High Court. The cross-examination will continue tomorrow.

Naxalites case for Sept. 26

Meanwhile, the 27 naxalites, including five women, who were arrested under the POTA in Dharmapuri district, were produced in the court. A few naxalites submitted petitions alleging that they were not being looked after well in the court.

The judge directed the jail authorities to look into the matter. He then extended the remand till Sept. 26 and posted the case for that day.

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