The Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) has issued notices to the Union Ministry of External Affairs, Research and Analysis Wing and the Central Bureau of Investigation to file replies within seven days to a public interest litigation seeking a reinvestigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at an election rally in Sriperumbudur in May 1991.
A Madurai-based lawyer V Santhakumaresan had moved the court claiming that a reinvestigation was necessary due to certain loopholes in the original investigation. Also, he claimed that there was no tangible evidence of the LTTE’s involvement in the assassination and that the three death row convicts – Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan have been punished without substantial proof of involvement.
He submitted that there were several lapses in the original investigation conducted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Karthikeyan and Chief Investigation Officer Ragothaman.
According to him, in a recent interview to a Tamil television news channel, Ragothaman had accused the then CBI director M K Narayanan of refusing to handover certain crucial videotapes to him taken before the assassination.
Further the suspicious role of senior Congress leaders including two former women Union Ministers (belonging to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu) in planning Rajiv Gandhi’s public meeting at Sriperumbudur were not examined by the investigators.
Besides, some important files relating to the case had gone missing from the office of the Prime Minister. Audiotapes recording telephonic conversations between a controversial godman and well known national politician were also missing.
The SIT had also rejected the alleged confessional statement of Ranganathan, who had facilitated the stay of the masterminds in the assassination plot Sivarasan and Dhanu at a house in Bangalore, that he had made the lodging arrangements only at the behest of a senior national Congress leader.
Hence there was a need to reopen the case and investigate it afresh. Hearing the plea, a bench comprising Justices A Selvam and P Devadass issued notices to the Union Secretary of Ministry of External Affairs, Director of RAW and Additional Director of CBI to file their counter-affidavits by June 5.