TN govt withdraws POTA cases against Nedumaran, 4 others

Chennai, July 14 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu government today withdrew POTA cases filed against Tamil National Movement Leader P Nedumaran and four others by the previous AIADMK Government.

The government withdrew the writ petition filed by the Jayalalithaa Government against the POTA Review Committee's order which held no prima facie case was made out against them.

Those who got reprieve included Mr Subha Veerapandian who had campaigned for the DMK in the recent Assembly elections, Mr Pavannan, Mr A Thaiyappan and Mr Sakul Hameed.

They were arrested along with Mr Nedumaran under POTA by the previous regime for their speeches, allegedly in support of the banned LTTE, at a public meeting here on April 13, 2002.

When the case came up for hearing before Mr Justice K Raviraja Pandian, Government Pleader Raja Kalifullah produced a letter which said the government had decided to withdraw the petition.

Following this, the judge dismissed the petition as withdrawn.

Thanking the state government for withdrawing the case, Mr Nedumaran, in a statement here said he was not fully happy as POTA cases against K Parandaman, Pudukottai Pavanan, MDMK General Secretary Vaiko, ''Nakkeeran'' Gopal and 26 others, arrested in Dharmapuri were still pending.

Mr Nedumaran thanked all those who had raised their voice in support of them and demanded the cases foisted by the previous government be withdrawn.

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