Prabhakaran

New Delhi, March 22: The central anti-terror law review committee will soon hear a petition filed by Tamil Nationalist Movement leader P. Nedumaran, seeking to lift the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam imposed under the law.

Nedumaran, a known sympathiser of the outlawed organisation, had written to the home ministry in November 2002 to lift the ban, government sources said.

He had even raised funds for the legal expenses of defending 21 LTTE members accused in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The ministry had routed his petition to the review committee as the anti-terror law demands that the panel review the action initiated against individuals and organisations by the Centre or a state government.

The issue cropped up today at the committee’s proceedings relating to MDMK leader Vaiko’s arrest under the anti-terror law by the Tamil Nadu government for delivering a public speech in support of the LTTE.

Justice A.B. Saharya, the chairman of the three-member committee, observed that they had “received a communication” from the home ministry to review Nedumaran’s petition. The plea was referred “recently to us”, he said, and “very soon, (the) committee’s next meeting would be scheduled” to hear it.

The committee’s decision would be binding on both the Centre and the state concerned.

The Centre would find it difficult to agree to do away with the ban on the LTTE as its chief V. Prabhakaran is the main accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the government sources said.