Loose Ends, Missed Leads

AFTER four years of investigations, the Rajiv Gandhi assassination remains a mystery. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by D.R. Kartikeyan has managedto nail only the third-rung operators in the conspiracy because of the series of slip-ups in the course of the probe. While loose ends were not tied up, important leads were not followed up. The main accomplices of the assassins could not be caught alive and some of the major conspirators were not charged "for want of evidence". And so, a case which the SIT chief had dubbed as "one of the most transparent cases in the world" seems to be making, to quote Sonia Gandhi, "tardy progress".

Glaring instances of negligence on the part of the SIT have now to come to light. The most incredible of these is the manner in which R. Srikumar, a DIG with the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), 'lost' his briefcase, containing important documents pertaining to the case, in London. Srikumar reported to the British police that his baggage had been stolen on April 2, 1992. Interestingly, the globetrot-ting godman Chandraswami has admitted before the Jain Commission that he was also present in London that day.

Union Home Minister S.B. Chavan, while confirming that the incident took place in London, completely denied that any papers related to the Rajiv Gandhi case had been lost. But investigations now reveal that the home minister had wittingly or unwittingly misled Parliament.

A letter written by an official of the Indian High Commission to the Ministry of External Affairs reveals hitherto unknown details of what transpired. The letter clearly points out that "in the lobby of Strand Palace Hotel on April 2, 1992, K.S. Rana, assistant personnel and welfare officer, received R. Srikumar on his arrival at London's Heathrow Airport.... While in the process of checking in, their briefcases were stolen." The letter further notes that among other things, Srikumar's briefcase contained: "i. a classified letter from a prosecutor in Toronto regarding Letter Rogatory; ii. pointers for further investigation in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case; iii. noting by Srikumar in the case; iv. photo identity cards."

 Since neither was the briefcase recovered, nor the culprits arrested, Intelligencesources fear the documents might have been passed on to the LTTE. If the Tigers did gain access, they would have been in the know of the entire line of "further investigation". Top-level intelligence sources say the classified letter from the Toronto prosecutor contained vital information pertaining to the case. So much so that it is feared that it would demolish the prosecution's case if used by the defence.

This is perhaps the reason why the SIT was forced to make several changes, including dropping some of its earlier witnesses, before filing its chargesheet on May 20, 1992. However, on the very next day, Justice M.C. Jain of the Jain Commission made it clear that he would not hesitate to look beyond the findings of the SIT. Said Jain: "We will have to pick up the leads where the SIT left them. And if we find that some evidence has been concocted, we willdefinitely expose the truth."

It may be recalled that initial investigations by the SIT had hinted at four main conspirators: Baby Subramaniam, Muthu-raja, Murugan and Sivarasan. Of them, only Murugan is in jail. Sivarasan swallowed cyanide when the National Security Guard tried to arrest him at Konanakunte, Bangalore. And Baby Subramaniam and Muthuraja do not even figure in the SIT chargesheet. Subramaniam is now number two in the LTTE hierarchy with the department of culture and Tamil language under his charge. According to the latest information, Muthuraja was not killed in an encounter with the Sri Lankan navy, as reported in the press, but is very much alive and running his business in Sri Lanka.

 Prior to the assassination, Baby Subramaniam, a prominent ideologue of the LTTE, was running a printing press in Madras. It was he who recruited Nalini and Bhagyanathan to arrange accommodationfor the assassins—Sivarasan (the one-eyed Jack), Shubha Sunderam and Dhanu. Subramaniam sold his printing press to Bhagyanathan for a meagre Rs 5,000 and thus befriended him and his family. Also, he financed Sunderam, a local photographer, to set up a studio and hired some local unemployed youth like Arivu and Haribabu. The latter clicked the last photographs of Rajiv Gandhi during his visitto Sriperumbudur. The communication network for the operation was entrusted by Subramaniam to Muthuraja.

But the SIT apparently has nothing concrete against the two. When contacted over the phone in Hyderabad, Kartikeyan said: "What have Baby Subramaniam and Muthuraja done? You have to have concrete evidence against the persons you want to prosecute. As it is, much damage has been done to this case and I don't want to add to it by further comments."

The SIT chief seems to be in total agreement with Sathasinam Krishankumar alias Kittu (now dead), former London-based spokesperson for the LTTE, who completely absolved Baby Subramaniam of any involvement in the August 1991 assassination. Kittu had then said that Subra-maniam "could have donated the press to somebody. It is not an issue here to know to whom it was given and how it was given. If the new press owner is involved in something, you cannot link Baby Subra-maniam with that. Just because some people are connected with our movement, you cannot jump to the conclusion that the LTTE has committed the murder."

In fact, the SIT chargesheet doesn't include a host of others believed to be involved in the larger conspiracy. Among them is Suren alias Nixon. But with his arrest by the Sri Lankan police during an anti-terrorist operation in September 1994, more information about the Rajiv Gandhi case surfaced. Neither the Sri Lankan police, nor the SIT knew anything about Nixon's past. During interrogation he reportedly told the police that he, along with Chokkan, Ramanan and Kanthan, was present at the Pourer house which had been hired by Robert Pias for setting up the wireless system. Nixon also gave some details about Shekhar, the man who puttogether the belt-bomb.

After recording his statement, the Sri Lankan authorities promptly informed their Indian counterparts. The Jain Commission also approached the Sri Lankan authorities for Nixon's statement. The minute details given by Nixon surprisingly matched the information dug out by the SIT. As a senior intelligence officer noted, "Had he not been involved in the conspiracy, Nixon would not have known all those details." According to sources, Nixon is still in custody in Sri Lanka and the Indian authorities are in constant touch with the Sri Lankan intelligence.

And then, there are others who were on the wanted list of the SIT in 1991 but were not arrested or questioned. No charges were framed aginst them and their names were dropped from the list of wanted. Kanthan is one such example. In August 1991, the SIT had released his photographs describing him as a "hard-core LTTE militant". Now the militant's whereabouts are not known and the SIT has virtually given up all efforts to track him. Kanthan also does not figure in the chargesheet.

Clearly, the SIT investigation is saddled with a lot of dead ends. The chargesheet is not clear about the origin of the RDX used in the assassination. There is no explanation for the .9mm Steyer revolver and the T-56 rifle found on Sivarasan. According to ballistic reports, it was a T-56 which was used to eliminate the EPRLF leader, Padmanabha, in Madras. Moreover, if the SIT did not include names of some of the conspirators in the chargesheet because of lack of concrete evidence, intelligence offi-cials wonder if the SIT has enough evidence to prove the involvement of LTTE supremo Vellupillai Prabhakaran in the assassination. It has certainly not been an open and shut case for the SIT.