TADA court notice to CBI on Rajiv Gandhi case death convict's petition

Chennai, Sept 20: A special TADA court on Sept 19 ordered issue of notice to CBI on a petition by death row convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, A G Perarivalan, seeking a direction to the agency to investigate the 'left out area' of earlier probe.

After more than 30-minute long in-camera proceedings, TADA court Judge N Dandapani issued notice to the CBI. Public Prosecutor for CBI sought six weeks time to file reply.

In his petition filed on September 13, Perarivalan also wanted the court to call and peruse the entire case dairies, pertaining to CBI (SIT) and its Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency, which probed the case.

On the basis of the report submitted by the Jain Commission of Inquiry, it was decided that further probe was essential to identify the role of individuals to uncover the larger conspiracy in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi (on May 21, 1991 in Sriperumbudur), he submitted.

Perarivalan contended that neither the SIT nor MDMA had proceeded with the probe in a proper perspective to bring the accused to book as several top people were 'involved'.

He further alleged that the CBI/MDMA, entrusted with the primary task to go into the facts of the involvement of foreign hand beyond LTTE, has not been done its work properly. He prayed that an effective monitoring of investigation into the left out parts of the probe be done.

PTI