There was a larger conspiracy behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and it remains hidden even 18 years after the government set up a Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency in the CBI. Based on the 1998 recommendation of the Justice MC Jain Commission of Inquiry, the designated TADA Court in Chennai which tried the case and sentenced all the 27 accused to death, in July 1999 acquiesced to the MDMA probing the conspiracy angle. Some powerful elements do not want the truth to come out. Like Rip Van Winkle, MDMA went into a long slumber. What was at stake was the life in prison of four of the 27 whose death sentences were upheld by the Supreme Court. The Tamil Nadu government’s repeated moves to free the four after completing 16 years in jail were thwarted by the Centre stating the State government had no power to set the prisoners free since the case was investigated by the CBI. The hidden hands of those who put the MDMA to sleep could be detected in keeping the four imprisoned till death. The Supreme Court order directing the CBI to submit a detailed status report within the timeframe by which its investigation into the conspiracy behind the assassination will be completed has given new hope of freedom to AG Perarivalan, one of the four death row prisoners, on whose petition the order was passed. The CBI submitted there were several difficulties as many of the suspects were absconders and living abroad.

The Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi ruled the investigation must be completed so that the petitioner was not denied any benefit accruing from it. The TADA court had conceded there was more to the case and wanted the CBI to bring out who the real conspirators of Rajiv’s assassination were. Perarivalan contended in his petition that neither the SIT nor the MDMA proceeded with the investigation in a proper perspective to bring the accused to book as several top people were involved. He was a teenager at the time of the assassination and his crime was to fetch a battery cell without any knowledge that it was going to be used to detonate the human bomb that killed Rajiv.

The battery was blown to smithereens in the explosion, leaving no trace. Yet the SIT concluded that particular battery was responsible. In the TADA court the onus of proving otherwise was on the accused and not on the prosecution. The actual assassin died along with Rajiv. The assassination squad led by Sivarasan was gunned down in their hideout on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Nalini’s crime was one of association. She accompanied the hit squad from Chennai to Sriperumbudur on that fateful night. Murugun was an errand boy of Sivarasan. And Santhan, a Sri Lankan Tamil in search of a job, was arrested because of mistaken identity. The SIT was on the lookout for ‘Gundu’ Santhan of the LTTE. If the MDMA does its job, all the four might well walk free.