'Aathirai, one of the accused in the Rajiv case, moved a petition before the Madras High Court stating that she wanted to disclose more information about Sivarasan on 25 September 1992. Her petition reads as follows:
“When I was in Jaffna, I met one Sivarasan who had left the LTTE movement and was frequenting India. I sought his help to go to Germany from India. On arrival at Madras, Sivarasan told me he has been engaged by some Congress leader to do a certain job and offered a large amount and a job in a foreign country. He asked me to join him in the execution of the job. But I refused. He later confided that one Mr Kalyanaraman, manager at AICC headquarters, had entrusted him with the execution of the job and informed me that Rajiv would visit Madras on 21 May and would stay at Sriperumbudur. On 22 May, Sivarasan told me he had executed the job with Dhanu’s help. He told me to go to Delhi and said Kalyanaraman would help me get a passport to go to Germany.”
But nobody took notice of her petition and the CBI never verified whether her statements were true.'
In an interview to Tehelka by Mr.S DORAISAMY - Practising at the Madras High Court since 1970. He was defense counsel for Nalini, who was given death sentence, later commuted to life, in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Rajiv Gandhi Assassination -
Unanswered questions & unresolved puzzles
At a time when a great nation of
a billion people is lead to believe that it has laid its hand on Rajiv’s
murderers, we, as dutiful citizens of this country are heavily disturbed by the
sheer negligence shown by all sections of the society in trying to understand
the highly biased nature and the consequential intricacies of the trial carried
on by CBI’s Special Investigation Team (SIT).
Winding the clocks back a little
to 1990s and starting our reasoning process from the key deliberations of the
opposition arguments in this case that ran for over 50 days, we attempt to
portray some of the most shocking and revealing facts that were carefully
hidden from the public attention until this very day.
In the hearings starting from the
year 1993, this case ran for 50 months with 288 witnesses, 3000 documents from
the Public prosecutor and 1000 documents supporting the opposition were
presented in the court. The opposition arguments were delivered with a heavy
presence of the officers from the Special Investigation Team and the Public
prosecutors while the Tamilnadu Police stood guard for the proceedings but all
through the investigation a completely secrecy was maintained.
Many of the questions raised
during the opposition’s arguments remained unanswered. The way in which the
investigation was done by the SIT leads to a suspicion that the investigation
has been carefully mended to appease those in power.
Rajiv’s death is the clear symptom of the deeper plans from
the international powers which try to dominate the polity of India. That is
precisely why these shocking events and the shortcomings in the investigation
are very important and need to be analyzed.
The opposition arguments in this
case were initiated by senior lawyer Mr. Duraisamy. He, in his initial
argument, reportedly blew up all the ‘cooked up stories’ of the SIT before an
intently listening court room. In a similar fashion, Mr. Ramadass in his 11 day
opposition argument, brought to light many of the ‘made up stories’ in the
SIT’s investigation report.
However the climax of the
opposition argument came from the harsh elicitations from Mr. Chandrasekar. He,
with highly convincing evidences and with a fully emotional flow of statements,
blamed the SIT for having cooked the report to fit their preconceived ideas and
notions. He went on even to challenge the SIT that, “If the SIT can prove the evidences against my questions, all my
accused party men will accept all the claims made against them”.
Thus the 50 day opposition argument has raised so many questions, most of the
unanswered till date.
For a better understanding of the
shortcomings in this investigation, the various strange happenings around the
time of Rajiv’s murder have been grouped under few major categories.
1. The unorthodox circumstances
leading to Rajiv’s appearance in the Sriperumbudur meeting pops up naturally as
the first question.
§ a. Rajiv started his propaganda
from Delhi and reached Chennai through Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. Yet the
question remains as to why Rajiv would agree to attend the Sriperumbudur
meeting which was not at all in the agenda of Tamilnadu Congress Party?
§ b. While other Senior Leaders of
Tamilnadu Congress like Vazhappadi Ramamurthy and G.K.Mooppanaar showed no
interest in bringing Rajiv for propaganda in Sriperumbudur, what made
Mrs.Maragadham Chandrasekar to travel to Delhi to invite him? Did she fall prey
to a larger conspiracy, unknowingly?
2. The second was with a
‘no-show’ from Rajiv’s security guard at a time when there was a definite threat
to Rajiv’s life and the so-called reporters who popped up from nowhere and
disappeared to nowhere but have always kept themselves at a safe distance from
Rajiv during his Sriperumbudur visit.
§ a. When Rajiv was making his
propaganda rounds in Bhuvaneshwar and Vishakapattinam, it was his Security
officer O.P.Sagar who stood guard. Why did not he turn up for Chennai?
§ b. Unidentified television
reporters from Bulgaria accompanied Rajiv in his propaganda. Their primary job
was to make video recordings of Rajiv’s propaganda. Though they participated in
the initial propaganda rounds of Rajiv in Orissa and Andhra, they chose to skip
all of his public meetings. Instead they stayed back in their luxury hotel with
the pilot of their special flight in Vishakapattinam. What could be the purpose
of their visit if they are not covering his public meetings, which is supposed
to be their key job?
§ c. In Vizag, Rajiv had to turn
back to his Circuit House due to a technical snag in his flight. Rajiv returned
to the flight after receiving the news through the then Andhra Pradesh Chief
Minister Vijaya Baskara Reddy that the problem has been solved. In the midst of
this mess, the two Bulgarian reporters reached the airport very late along with
Rajiv’s Security Officer O.P.Sagar and consequentially missed the flight. Thus
the security officer did not fly with Rajiv. What circumstances led an
experienced officer like Sagar to miss the flight with Rajiv?
§ d. Meanwhile Rajiv reached
Chennai without his security officer. The security officer who takes charge in
Chennai P.C.Gupta who was waiting to receive Rajiv could not receive the Pistol
from O.P.Sagar as the later did not come in that flight. As a result, Gupta
traveled along with Rajiv with out the pistol.
§ e. After Rajiv left the Chennai
Meenabakkam airport in his motorcade two so-called women journalists boarded
Rajiv’s car near Ramavaram. Whether their identity was ever verified by SIT is
still a question. Why they were not subjected to any kind of investigation is a
bigger question.
§ f. Where are the Bulgarians? Who
are the two foreign journalists and where did they go after the incident?
3. How Pirabaharan and LTTE were
linked to this case without any acceptable evidence?
§ a. Except for the fact that
Dhanu, Subha and Sivarasan all hail from Yalpanam(Jaffna), what made the SIT
believe that they acted only on the behest of LTTE. Why they couldn’t have been
hired by any other foreign power for this assassination? Why the SIT
investigation around them was concluded only by linking them with LTTE and
excluding any other possibility?
§ b. The SIT’s claim for having
overheard a radio conversation between PottuAmman and Sivarasan seems to be an
imaginary story built to sustain their stand. What is the proof for this claim?
§ c. There are many facts that can
be derived by comparing Rajiv’s murder with that of Padhmanaba. While the
latter’s murder was investigated by the Tamilnadu Q branch police, the SIT
investigated Rajiv’s murder. Both the teams point the place of origin of the
conspiracy to Yalpanam(Jaffna). While Sivarasan was a prime accused in both the
cases, Pirabaharan was not an accused at all in Padhmanaba’s murder. It only
leads us to a conclusion that the inclusion of Pirabahran’s name in Rajiv’s
murder is not a consequence of any findings of investigation rather it seems to
be truly politically motivated. The inclusion was done only with a cruel
intention to add ‘life’ to this case.
§ d. India and especially Tamilnadu
are well known vocal supporters and sympathizers of the liberation struggle of
Tamils. Given this obvious fact, it will be a historical blunder to kill Rajiv
in Tamilnadu and get themselves kicked out of India and face a legal ban, if
ever they had such an intention. Will Pirabaharan, the leader of a liberation
struggle of its stature be stupid enough to take such a decision?
§ e. How come an old photograph
where Pirabaharan posed alongside Sivarasan is the only solid evidence to prove
that Pirabaharan had a hand in this murder?
§ f. Even if Dhanu, Subha and
Sivarasan had been with the LTTE earlier. What proves that they were associated
with the LTTE at the time of assassination? Why they can’t have moved out of
LTTE and acted as paid-assassins for any other Western, European or Indian
mafia?
4. The most important question is
with the strangest circumstances under which Congress leaders and their family
members cleared all the security hurdles and lead the assassins and their aides
gain such a close proximity with a former Prime Minister and the running Prime
Ministerial candidate Rajiv. (In fact Dhanu was only at arm’s reach when the
bomb exploded). This won’t have been possible even for long time Congress
workers. This is accompanied by the unnatural silence maintained by Congress
leaders about the questions lingering around the strange circumstances of the
murder.
§ a. The two so-called women
foreign journalists interviewed Rajiv in the car, but Mrs.Marakatham
Chandrasekar (Senior Congress Leader of TamilNadu Congress Committee ) who accompanied Rajiv in his car declined to
comment stating that she did not know anything about the discussion. Why this
strange behavior was not put to any investigation?
§ b. Mrs.Maragadham Chandrasekar
came to the venue of the Sriperumbudur Public meeting. Her daughter Latha
Priyakumar came from Arakkonam along with her husband Lawyer Magendiran. Her
son Lalith Chandrasekar came to the venue with his wife Vinothini. But they
never revealed where they started from. Given the fact that Vinothini is the
very daughter of Julius Jayewardene, why she was never interrogated? When the
entire family was at the venue, why no one was ever interrogated?
§ c. Sivarasan’s mother and
Vinothini’s father are Sinhalese. Both of them were at the murder site, why
they can’t have acted on the behest of Srilankan Supremo Premadasa who has an
apparent apprehension against Rajiv for having sent the IPKF to Srilanka.
§ d. Rajiv was intercepted on his
way to the podium was interrupted for a while by Latha Kannan who read out a
poem. It this timeframe, that was utilized by the assassin Dhanu to trigger the
bomb. Why she was never included in the list of accused? Dhanu entered the
security ring and got so close to Rajiv only using Latha Kannan. If Haribabu
could be accused, why not Latha Kannan? Why should the SIT show such a
blatantly kind attitude towards people who had a Congress connection?
§ e. Vazhappadi Ramamurthy, who
accompanied Rajiv to the stage in the two street-corner meetings just preceding
the Sriperumudur meeting, was too far from Rajiv in this meeting alone. Why is
that?
§ f. Many innocent civilians and
security personnel died alongside Rajiv but it is too strange to observe that
not even a single Congress worker died or even had a minor injury in this
incident?
§ g. It was considered that Latha
Priyakumar brought Dhanu, Subha and Sivarasan to Sriperumbudur. More
importantly Latha Priyakumar(Daughter of Maragadham Chandrasekar) brought them
to the Women’s section and asked Latha Kannan to help them. Why she was never
interrogated as to the purpose of letting them have access to former PM?
§ h. Renganathan testified that he
rented the house out to Sivarasan only at the instance of Margaret Alwa. How
was she related to Sivarasan? Was the validity of this claim ever verified by
SIT?
5. Based on various statements by
notable leaders, evidences and prevalent circumstances there are many possible
conspirators. It is very strange that the Congress who should have had the
biggest interest in uncovering this conspiracy never questioned the SIT for not
considering those more probable alternatives?
§ a. Chandraswamy, Subramania
Swamy (both accused
by the Jain commission) and arms dealer Kasoki were all possible candidates for
interrogation. Was any investigation done considering them?
§ b. During the Gulf war, India
under leadership of Mr.Chandrasekar supplied fuel to the American fighter
crafts. Rajiv heavily criticized this and there is every reason for America to
be angry at Rajiv. Why there is no investigation done considering the
possibility of a CIA hand behind the assassination?
§ c. Before being killed, Rajiv
told that the CIA is responsible for the assassination of then Pakistani Prime
Minister Zia-Ul-Huq. What forced him make such a statement? Did he suspect a
similar attempt at his life as well by CIA?
§ d. In the aftermath during July
1991 the then Home Minister S.P.Chavan opined that there are other foreign
groups and powers which are behind Rajiv’s assassination. Was any investigation
done to assess the reason behind the Home Minister’s statement?
§ e. CIA, notorious for its
interest in the departures of many of the third world leaders was never considered
a possible conspirator. Why was that?
§ f. The leader of Palestinian
liberation struggle Mr. Yasar Arafat warned the then PM Mr.Chandrasekar that
there is a threat to Rajiv’s life. What was the source of this warning? Was
there any investigation done in that direction? Considering the fact that the
possibility of Mr.Yasar Arafat receiving any intelligence is possible only if
the conspiracy was hatched in the Middle East or the Western Europe, did the
SIT investigate such a possibility?
§ g. If there is one thing that the
Srilankan government would share with the LTTE, it is the hatred towards Rajiv
for messing up their lives in Srilanka by sending the IPKF. Considering this
fact, the opposition lawyer Chandrasekar challenged the SIT that his party
would accept all the claims against them if the SIT could prove that Vinothini
and her family are innocent and they did not have anything to do in the murder.
The SIT safely chose to skip this very important challenge from opposition and
hence no one from that family was ever interrogated
§ h. The Srilankan government would
have obviously been threatened by Rajiv’s statement that IPKF will make another
visit to Srilanka if he came back to power. Why the possibility that they had
an interest in his death, was never considered?
§ i. Premadasa was popularly blamed
for the assassination of many of the political leaders of his time including
Kamini Thissanayaka, Adhulath Mudhali and Vikrama Singhe. Why there was no
investigation done considering this possibility?
§ j. Politicians with vested
interest or even his party leaders who may find him as a hurdle in their
political career could have used assassins to execute Rajiv out of political
enmity. Why this angle was never considered?
§ k. Rajiv as a Prime Minister had
close links with so many international weapon dealers. Why they couldn’t have
had a hand in this assassination?
We don’t need reputed agencies
like the CBI or SIT to conduct the investigation if the end result is only to
file a report blaming a few individuals without considering any of the obvious
possibilities.
Though we all agree that “not
every question turns out to be a fact” But if these strong suspicious
circumstances are not investigated there is every chance that the real
conspirators protected by powerful groups get away easily. Those real culprits
who go uncaught will turn out to be a true threat to the safety of the leaders
of this nation.
Interview with Mr.S DORAISAMY
