CHENNAI: P Chandra Sekharan, a forensic expert who played a crucial role in establishing the identity of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassin, died after a period of illness, here on Tuesday. He was 83. He is survived by his wife, daughter and grandsons.
After the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, it was Chandra Sekharan, who announced to the world that he was killed by a human bomb and that the human bomb was a woman.
He later went on to write in his book The first human bomb, “The dead bodies of all the 16 individuals who were killed along with Rajiv Gandhi were identified and claimed. Only one human body with dismembered parts was not identified. When I scrutinised the dismembered parts, I found a severed head and two lower limbs. The facial parts of the severed head were intact and recognisable. The forehead was beautified with a bindi and the fully grown, long scalp hair was bedecked with kanakambaram flowers, indicating that the severed head belonged to a woman.”
Chandra Sekharan, said to be the longest serving director of the forensic department in Tamil Nadu, was credited with an important role in making the Forensic Sciences department a unit independent of the police.
VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan who had received his first appointment order as Scientific Assistant in the prohibition section of the Forensic Sciences Department from Chandra Sekharan, said: “Even after I joined politics, we shared a close relationship. During the Divya-Ilavarasan case, I visited him with the evidence. He was sure Ilavarasan’s death was not a suicide.”
“A few days before his death when he was not in a position to speak, his relatives said he would ask for me by twisting his moustache, mutely showing a sign for me to be called,” he added. The Chief Investigating Officer in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case K Ragothaman, remembers Chandra Sekharan as a sharp, yet straightforward man. “It was his superimposition skull technique that helped identify Dhanu, the assassin,” he said.
A Padma Bhushan awardee, he also confirmed the identity of forest brigand Veerappan while speculation was rife after his trademark handlebar moustache had reportedly been missing at the time he was shot dead.