MDMK general secretary Vaiko, detained under POTA at the Vellore Central prison today sought Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s intervention on the detention of R.R. Gopal under POTA.In a letter to Vajpayee from prison, copy of which was released to the media here, Vaiko, alleged that the charges against Gopal such as possessing unlicensed weapon had been framed up to detain him.Vaiko described this as ‘murderous assault’ on freedom of the Press and democracy. POTA has become a guillotine of the Jayalalithaa government, he maintained. DMK president M.Karunanidhi has also written to the PM demanding the repeal of the Act. He stressed there was no alternative to repealing the Act, ‘‘when the abuse touched new scales and crossed all its limits.’’
