Tamil Nadu   

Vaiko plea to be taken up in apex court soon

By K.T. Sangameswaran

CHENNAI, SEPT. 6. With the trial court dismissing the prosecution petition seeking to withdraw the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) case against the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) leader, Vaiko, defence will take up the matter with the Supreme Court on September 10.

``We will bring this to the notice of the Supreme Court on the next hearing date,'' G. Devadoss, defence counsel, told The Hindu .

By its May 7 order, the Supreme Court stayed the trial of the case against Mr. Vaiko and eight other partymen.

This followed a special leave petition filed by them challenging an order of the Madras High Court declining their plea for a direction to the State Government to withdraw the case as per the decision of the Central POTA Review Committee.

The next hearing is scheduled for September 10.

Defence is of the view that the trial court's order declining to accept the prosecution petition, filed under Section 321 Cr.P.C. (withdrawal from prosecution), could be taken up directly before the Supreme Court or the High Court.

Since the matter of stay of all further proceedings before the trial court comes up before the Supreme Court in the next few days, defence will wait.

On September 1, L. Rajendran, judge of the special court at Poonamallee, dismissed the prosecution petition on the ground that the POTA Review Committee's order was ``premature and arbitrary.''

The panel had prematurely concluded the issue without having any opportunity to analyse the complete material relied upon by the prosecution, the judge said.

A total of 46 prosecution witnesses have been examined. On the last day of trial on May 4, M. Lakshmanan, a retired Deputy Secretary (Public), was examined. Nine witnesses have turned hostile.

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