The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Special court acquits Nedumaran, four others of all POTA charges

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 04, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Special court acquits Nedumaran, four others of all POTA charges

Special Correspondent

Judge relies on findings given by Central Review Committee "No prima facie case to proceed against the accused"

CHENNAI: The Special Court under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) at Poonamallee on Tuesday acquitted Tamilar Desiya Iyakkam leader P. Nedumaran of all charges.

Other accused, Suba Veerapandian, Thayarappan, Shahul Hameed and Pudukottai Pavannan, were also acquitted by Special Judge Avadai Thiyagarajamoorthy.

While giving a clean chit to the accused, the trial judge relied on the findings of the Central Review Committee constituted under the POTA Repeal Act, comprising Chairperson Justice Usha Mehra and members R.C. Jha and Raj Pal, which said there was no prima facie case to proceed against Mr. Nedumaran and others.

He also referred to the petition filed by the Special Public Prosecutor for POTA cases, P. Venkasubramaniam, seeking to withdraw the proceedings as provided for under Section 321 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

An appraisal

Mr. Nedumaran and others were arrested for having organised a meeting, which was an appraisal of an interview given by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader V. Prabakaran to more than 100 presspersons from various countries. It was held on April 13, 2002, and Mr. Nedumaran arrested on August 1, 2002.

They were charged under Section 21(1), (2) and (3) of the POTA.

A total of seven witnesses were examined.

While the previous Government filed a writ petition challenging the finding of the statutory committee as well as the validity of the provisions under which it had been constituted, the present Government withdrew the writ petition from the High Court recently.

Former Public Prosecutor of Tamil Nadu, R. Shanmugasundaram, was engaged as senior counsel in the Special Court under POTA.

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