press trust of india
New Delhi, August 17: The Supreme Court Thursday directed the Centre to inform it about the investigation on the conspiracy aspect behind making of the bomb that had killed former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
The apex court asked the government about the probe being carried out on this aspect, after one of the convicts in the assassination case claimed that this issue has not been properly investigated. “What is the result of the re-investigation or further investigation on this aspect? Kindly address us on this. We want only this,” a bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi said. The apex court fixed the matter for further hearing next week.
Advocate Gopal Shankarnarayanan, appearing for convict A G Perarivalan, told the bench that there were several issues, including the conspiracy behind making of the bomb that killed Rajiv Gandhi, which were not investigated properly in the case. Death sentence of Perarivalan, who was charged with supplying batteries for the belt-bomb worn by suicide bomber Dhanu that killed Rajiv Gandhi, was earlier commuted to life term by the apex court. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by the suicide bomber at an election rally. 14 others were also killed then. The apex court was hearing a plea in the matter by Perarivalan who has alleged that neither the CBI’s special investigation team, nor the Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) headed by it, had proceeded with the probe in a proper perspective to bring the accused to book, as several top people were involved in it.
