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The police on Tuesday invoked Prevention of Terrorism Act for the first time in Tamil Nadu arresting eight Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagan men for their pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam remarks recently.
However, undeterred by this, MDMK chief Vaiko, who is in Chicago, announced that he would return to Chennai on July 11.
The arrested, including former Member of Parliament Ganesamurthy, had non-bailable warrants issued against them by a court for their alleged speeches in support of banned LTTE in a meeting in Thirumangalam near here on June 29.
They would be produced before a magistrate at Thirumangalam.
Meanwhile, police officials said they had a tough task getting the warrants for the arrest of the MDMK volunteers as the magistrate questioned the need for issuing the warrant under POTA.
"The magistrate had also asked, 'Why should Vaiko, the first MP to support POTA, be arrested'," a top police official told PTI.
But, police did not rule out the possibility of Vaiko's arrest without a warrant claiming it was not required under POTA.
Earlier, after obtaining the NBWs, a special police team from Madurai arrived at the Erode house of Ganesamurthy at about 6.20 am and arrested him, a police official said over phone from Erode.
Cases had been registered against MDMK general secretary Vaiko and eight others under sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 for making pro-LTTE statements at the meeting.
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