'Not Sonia, another woman claimed to be Rajiv Gandhi's wife'

Chennai, Dec 26: 21 years after

's death, a statement from a revenue official shocked all. An official of Kancheepuram district informed that a woman had claimed to be Rajiv Gandhi's wife.

The woman, who was identified as Sabeen Firdous from Hyderabad, was also issued Mr Gandhi's death certificate.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi might be shocked over the incident. Times of India quoted the revenue official as saying, "Death certificates are not confidential papers but what has caused discomfiture is that she claimed to be Rajiv Gandhi's wife."

The daily also reported that the woman, in her application, mentioned her age as 50 and her place of residence as Dada Sahib Road, Hyderabad.

The sub-registrar officer Ramalingam had issued the death certificate copy to the woman. Later, a probe was held and Kancheepuram district administration ordered the transfer of the record clerk B Natarajan.

The shocking revelation ignited controversy over Rajiv Gandhi's death. Recently, K Ragothaman, who was the head of the investigating team of the assassination case, published a book which brought the then chief of Intelligence Bureau (IB) MK Narayanan to the centre of the controversy.

Narayanan, who is currently the governor of West Bengal, has been accused of suppressing a video which allegedly had captured "human bomb" Dhanu at the Sriperumbudur venue where Rajiv Gandhi was killed on May 21, 1991.

The video tape allegedly showed Dhanu's presence at the venue prior to the former prime minister's arrival.

In his book "Conspiracy to kill Rajiv Gandhi - From CBI files", Ragothaman writes, "The assassin gang, as per our investigation, was very much in the sterile zone for more than two and half hours waiting for its target."

The allegations of the author raised fingers at Tamil Nadu police who had easily got away with the claim that Dhanu had sneaked into the sterile zone after Rajiv Gandhi's arrival at the venue around 10 pm.

The author, in his book, also asserted that "the tape taken by the IB officials was the original one and that the video given to the local police was a substituted one".

The former IB chief also informed that DR Karthikeyan, the then chief of Special Investigation Team (SIT), had allowed Narayanan to go scot-free after conducting a preliminary investigation regarding the missing video.

In his book, the author leaves a question for Narayanan saying, would Narayanan have dared "to damage the goal of the Congress party, irrespective of his personal affiliation to Rajiv Gandhi's family?"

According to Ragothaman, the crucial video tape was suppressed as it could have exposed those people with whom Dhanu had interacted at the venue.

OneIndia News