Chennai: A POTA court on December 18 extended the remand period of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) general secretary, Vaiko, and eight of his party colleagues, now detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), up to December 30.

POTA magistrate L Rajendran wanted to know from the police as to why the charge sheet had so far not been filed against any of them and directed that it should be done at the earliest.

Vaiko was arrested under POTA on July 11 on return from the United States for making pro-LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam) speeches in a conference near Madurai.

Initially there was commotion in the court premises at suburban Poonamalee, as photographers of various newspapers and cameramen of various news channels were not allowed entry by the police to shoot the proceedings.

However, they were later allowed.

PTI