POTA court refuses to drop case against Vaiko, eight others

The POTA court in suburban Poonamalee yesterday declined to drop the case against MDMK leader Vaiko and eight of his colleagues, holding that the Central Review Committees decision that there was no prima facie POTA case against them was arbitrary and premature.

Delivering the order on a petition filed by the special public prosecutor on the recommendation of the Tamil Nadu Government for the withdrawal of the case, Designated Judge L. Rajendran rejected the plea on the ground that the prosecutor had not assigned any independent or convincing reason warranting the withdrawal of prosecution.

His reason that in the light of the order passed by the review committee, he should be allowed to withdraw the case, is totally unacceptable, the judge said.

He said the review committee did not take into account all the relevant materials placed before the court by the prosecution.

The MDMK functionaries have been charged under the POTA for speaking in support of the banned LTTE at a meeting near Madurai in June 2002. They were arrested the following month and spent 19 months in jail, Vaiko coming out on bail just on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections after successfully challenging Section 21 of POTA, on which the entire case rests.

On his petition, the Supreme Court held that mere extending moral support to an outlawed outfit would not come under Section 21 of the POTA.

After this, the Central Review Committee headed by Justice A. S. Shahariar held in April this year that there was no prima facie case against Vaiko and others and directed the Tamil Nadu Government to drop the POTA cases.

But with the State Government dithering on it, Vaiko moved the High Court for remedy. The Government responded by challenging the power of the review committee. The High Court held that the review committee's recommendation was binding on the State Government, but not on the prosecutor or the trial court.

It also held that the prosecutor should apply his mind and come to an independent decision.

With the prosecutor taking his own time to act on the court order and the State too dragging its feet, Vaiko once again moved the Supreme Court. After this, the government instructed the prosecutor to file the application for dropping the case. Interestingly, the prosecutor did not answer the requirement set by the High Court that he should apply his mind and take an independent decision; rather, he chose to tell Judge that his application was merely based on the review committee's verdict.

© The Asian Age