Was there a ‘larger conspiracy’ behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi? Who were the ‘real conspirators’? These are the questions the Supreme Court wants the CBI to respond to. The queries came from one of the convicts in the case, A.G. Perarivalan.
A Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and L. Nageshwara Rao on Wednesday issued notice to the premier investigating agency asking why they did not probe whether there was a larger conspiracy at work behind the assassination in 1991 despite an order from a TADA court in Chennai.
The TADA court had passed the order on a petition by A.G. Perarivalan for a direction to CBI to probe the ‘leftout area’ of the earlier investigation into the assassination.
“What is the further investigation required?” Justice Gogoi asked.
Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for Perarivalan, replied that further probe is indeed required.
“What was followed by the CBI was a ‘Boom Theory’. That is there is a death, followed by an investigation into the boom and trial focusing on the boom. But they have not gone into whether there was a larger conspiracy... It is this question which requires investigation,” Mr. Dhavan submitted.
“So the boom is over, the trial is over and you say there is still something more to it?” Justice Gogoi asked.
“Yes, the TADA court said there is more to it. It asked the CBI to investigate who the real conspirators were,” Mr. Dhavan responded.
The court then ordered the issue of notice, seeking a response from the CBI.
Perarivalan had, in the lower courts, wanted the entire case dairies pertaining to the CBI (Special Investigation Team) and its Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA), which probed the case.
He had referred to the Jain Commission of Inquiry report, which had formed the basis for the court’s decision for a further probe to identify the role of individuals to uncover the larger conspiracy in the assassination.
Perarivalan had contended that neither the SIT nor the MDMA had proceeded with the probe in a proper perspective to bring the accused to book as several top people were ‘involved’.
He had further alleged that the CBI/MDMA, entrusted with the primary task to go into the facts of the involvement of foreign hand beyond the LTTE, has not done its work properly.
