Wednesday 26 February 2014

"Mysteries of Rajiv Gandhi Assassination" - Introduction to Verma Commission & Jain Commission

Verma Commission’s Findings

1. Verma commission heavily criticized serious security lapses introduced by police & intelligence wings of state, central governments and also by Congress leaders

2. Ministerial committee which was instituted to review findings of Verma commission did not analyze any such aspects but quickly winded up after blaming four officers. Much to the demise of legal experts, the investigation against those officers was started long after they retired from service (when they enjoy impunity from any such investigation). The officers as if things have been pre-planned, did not panic. Instead they approached proper legal bodies and got the exceptions from enquiry

3. Credibility of M.K.Narayanan as IB director was questioned in length by Justice Verma for he,

§  a. Rejected to produce original video recordings of the bomb explosion
§  b. Rejected to agree in writing that he attended the meeting that discussed Rajiv’s security immediately following the announcement of Parliament elections


4. Karthikeyan, the head of SIT also exhibited a suspicious behavior

§  a. He too rejected to show the original video recordings of the bomb blast even in the last sitting of Verma commission

§  b. A version presented by him had the last few critical minutes being heavily tampered with making it very haze to arrive at any conclusion

§  c. He is also reported for having rejected the existence of such a video initially even to an enquiry commission

Jain commission’s Findings

1. Jain commission shared the shock and disbelief of the entire nation when it got a response from the Home Ministry that the file containing original documents related to Verma commission is MISSING

§  a. A similar disappearance of important documents happened with CBI officer Kumar losing his briefcase full of internationally collected documents in London’s Heathrow airport. He did nothing but file a complaint with London police and was put to no disciplinary action.

2. The obstacles put up by the Congress to the proper working of the Jain commission is multi pronged

§  a. Attorney General filed a suit that the Jain commission does not have any AUTHORITY to enquire anyone who has been enquired by SIT before

§  b. It cannot accuse anyone else apart from those accused by SIT as per his claim

§  c. Law ministry from its part delayed the process by taking a whole year to send a response to Jain’s request for clarification

§  d. It also tried its best to limit Jain commission’s fair trial process by supporting the claim made by Attorney General

3. But the best of moves from Congress was with the filing of a case in Delhi high court against the validity of the G.O which installed the Jain commission

§  a. This prompted the HC to bring an interim stay to any enquiry by the Jain commission

§  b. This only lead to a delay as the HC reassured the powers of Jain commission to operate with independence and anyone it finds fit shall be called for enquiry

§  c. The Congress in a knee jerk reaction escalated the case to Supreme Court of India. It was rightly caught with the SC questioning its interest in promoting a PIL filed by a so-called individual Delhi Lawyer Mustaq.

§  d. Congress ended up withdrawing the case showing everyone that it is the Congress that acted as the real hand behind the PIL file by Mustaq. Why would Congress try to stall a legally established enquiry commission?

4. The most successful move by Congress against the Jain commission was with the threat to withdraw the support to IK Gujral government if Jain commission was left to exist anymore.

§  a. The minority government forced by Congress pulled the plug off the only fair trial mechanism

§  b. Jain commission was forced to submit a final report in 7 days

§  c. A minister called up Jain and asked him to present only a high level report and asked him not to present any Action Taken Report (ATR). This would mean that the report is not presented in Parliament and sent to the Secretariat of the respective ministries instead

5. Jain commission withstood the enormous pressure exerted by Congress and presented a detailed 2000 page report explaining the clear links that Chandraswami had with the assassination and SubramanianSwamy’s links with the assassination



6. Justice Jain also wrote to Home ministry about the threat received from various parties and the way SIT tried to intimidate the works of Jain commission

7. Later it came to light that Narasimha Rao in order to save his close friend Chandraswami made the files to disappear

8. The one who performed all these activities on the behest of Narasimha Rao is none other the Home minister P. Chidambaram

The entire process leads to greater suspicions on the activities of the SIT. These questions do remain!

1. Why only sympathizers of Tamil cause alone were interrogated, accused and convicted?

§  a. All 26 of the accused were Tamils or sympathizers of Tamils, 13 from India and 13 from Srilanka. Yet Tamils who had an anti-Tamil affinity were excused.

§  b. All 4 of the accused who were condemned to death were Tamils and sympathizers of Tamil cause

§  c. For example, Perarivalan who was convicted to death was charged that he bought a 9v battery for the assassin. The only evidence was the cash bill (to be retained safely in his pocket when police arrested his months later!) that was supposed to have been given by a road side petty shop. Does any roadside shop in India give a receipt even now for a 5 Rs purchase? How about 20 years before (in 1991), before the invent of computerized billing? While Perarivalan who was watching movie at the time of Rajiv’s death was enquired and finally convicted, Marakatham Chandrasekar and her daughter who helped the assassin to approach Rajiv and were present at the site of assassination left to go free?

2. People who played definite roles were never convicted, accused or even interrogated

3. Apart from the vicious intention in the SIT’s approach, there are also serious human right violations in the way the enquiry was done. SIT’s officer Thiyagarajan infamously indicated by the Kerala HC for turning Sister Abaya’s rape and murder case in to a suicide case was heavily criticized for his credibility as an investigation officer.

§  a. It is shocking to believe that the Supreme Court’s verdict to hang the accused was based on the confessional statements obtained through brutal tortures by this tainted officer

§  b. There are lot of evidences to believe that the SIT has been heavily biased by those who were in power


§  c. This is strengthened by the way in which SIT tried to substantiate a charge against life convict Robert Pias only by quoting that he had intentions to murder Rajiv since IPKF killed his 13 days old child by smashing the infant to the wall. The fact remained that the harmless Pias was taking refuge in India in an attempt to save his other kid

- will come back with more information- Thank you for your time 

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