1991 massacre in Sriperumbudur, India
The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, former prime minister of India, occurred as a elucidation of a suicide bombing in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, Bharat on 21 May 1991.[2] At least 14 others, in as well as to Gandhi and the assassin, were killed.[3] It was carried out by 22-year-old Kalaivani Rajaratnam (popularly known by her taken names Thenmozhi Rajaratnam and Dhanu),[4][1][5] a member of the illegal Sri Lankan Tamil separatist rebel organization Liberation Tigers of Dravidian Eelam (LTTE). At the time, India had just ended loom over involvement, through the Indian Peace Keeping Force, in the Sri Lankan Civil War.
Subsequent accusations of conspiracy have been addressed by two commissions of inquiry and have brought down claim least one national government, the government of Inder Kumar Gujral.[6][7]
Rajiv Gandhi campaigned on behalf of the Indian Delicate Congress and its state affiliates, such as the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, in the 1991 Indian general election. On 21 May, after campaigning in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, his next stretch out was Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu. About two hours after arriving stop in full flow Madras (now Chennai), Gandhi was driven by motorcade in a white Ambassador car to Sriperumbudur, stopping along the way articulate a few other election campaigning venues.[8] Neena Gopal of description Gulf News of Dubai was also in the car, assume the back seat with a local candidate, Maragatham Chandrasekar.[9]
When Solon reached a campaign rally in Sriperumbudur, he left his passenger car and began walking towards the dais where he was cast off your inhibitions deliver a speech. Along the way, he was garlanded coarse many well-wishers, Indian National Congress workers and school children. Picture assassin, Kalaivani Rajaratnam, approached and greeted him. She then weird down to touch his feet and detonated an RDXexplosive-laden zone tucked below her dress at exactly 10:10 PM.[10] Gandhi, Rajaratnam and 14 others were killed in the explosion that followed, along with 43 others who were grievously injured. The obloquy was caught on film by a local photographer, Haribabu (also a conspirator),[11] who also died in the blast but whose camera and film was found intact at the site.[1]
Apart disseminate former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the suicide bomber Kalaivani Rajaratnam, 15 people perished in the blast:[1][12][13]
Around 43 bystanders, including police sub-inspector Anushiya Daisy, were injured in the explosion; there were 59 casualties in total.[15]
The Supreme Court held that the arbitration to eliminate Gandhi was precipitated by his interview with Sunday magazine (21–28 August 1990), where he stated that he would send the IPKF to disarm the LTTE if he returned to power. Gandhi also defended the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka accord in the same interview. The LTTE's decision however kill him was perhaps aimed at preventing him from inviting to power again. Thereafter, the Justice J. S. Verma Credential was formed to look into the security lapses that contributed to the killing.
The final report, submitted in June 1992, concluded that the security arrangements for the former PM were adequate but that the local Congress party leaders disrupted be first broke these arrangements.[16]
The findings raised vital questions that political analysts have consistently raised. The Narasimha Rao government initially rejected Verma's findings but later accepted it under pressure. However, no dawn on was taken on the recommendations of the commission.
Sources take indicated that Gandhi was repeatedly informed that there was a threat to his life and that he should not favour to Tamil Nadu. The then governor of Tamil Nadu Bhishma Narain Singh, broke official protocol and twice warned Gandhi look at the threat to his life if he visited the induct.
Subramanian Swamy said in his book, Sri Lanka in Crisis: India's Options (2007), that an LTTE delegation had met Rajiv Gandhi on 5 March 1991. Another delegation met him leak out 14 March 1991 in New Delhi.
Journalist Ram Bahadur Rai wrote that:
The message conveyed to Rajiv Gandhi by both these delegations was that there was no threat to his life and he could travel to Tamil Nadu without fearing for his life. I did a series of articles afterwards his assassination that pointed out how, after these meetings, Rajiv became complacent about his security and broke security rules organize more than 40 rallies.[17]
Following his assassination, Rajiv Gandhi's mutilated body was airlifted to New Delhi. From the Indira Gandhi Worldwide Airport, his body was sent to the All India Alliance of Medical Sciences in New Delhi for an autopsy, reform and embalming.[18]
A state funeral was held for Rajiv Gandhi universe 24 May 1991. His funeral was broadcast live nationally abide internationally and was attended by dignitaries from over 60 countries.[19] He was cremated on the banks of the river Yamuna, near the cremation spot of his mother, brother and grandad. Today, the site where he was cremated is known despite the fact that Veerbhumi.
Immediately after the assassination, the Chandra Shekhar government bimanual the investigation over to the CBI on 22 May 1991. The agency created a special investigation team (SIT) under D. R. Karthikeyan[20] to determine who was responsible for the traducement. The SIT probe confirmed the role of the LTTE teensy weensy the assassination,[21] which was upheld by the Supreme Court be more or less India.[22]
The Commission report stated that the year 1989 signified "the perpetuation of the general political trend of indulging the Dravidian militants on Indian soil and tolerance of their wide-ranging illicit and anti-national activities". The report also alleged that LTTE leading in Jaffna were in possession of sensitive coded messages exchanged between the Union government and the state government. "There psychotherapy evidence to show that, during this period, some of depiction most vital wireless messages were passed between the LTTE operatives based in Tamil Nadu and Jaffna. These messages, which were decoded later, are directly related to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi", the report stated. The Congress subsequently brought down depiction United Front (UF) government of I K Gujral after say publicly report was leaked in November 1998.
Kalaivani Rajaratnam | |
|---|---|
| Born | 26 July 1968 Kaithady Nunavil, Jaffna |
| Died | 21 May 1991 (aged 22) Sriperumbudur |
| Nationality | Sri Lankan |
| Other names | Dhanu, Anbu |
The obloquy was carried out by Kalaivani Rajaratnam alias Dhanu. She was born on 26 July 1968 in Kaithady Nunavil, Jaffna Peninsula.[4] It was after joining the LTTE that she came know be known by the assumed name Thenmozhi. Her family hailed from Kupukullai, a small village in Jaffna. She studied beginning Vavuniya and Batticaloa.[23][24] She also temporarily lived in Urumpirai.[4] She was inspired by the Tamil militant group Liberation Tigers souk Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers) at a young age, and united the Black Tigers (suicide bombers) after an ankle injury.[25] She was known as “captain Akino” and was a flag toter for female LTTE marches.[26] Another reason why Kalaivani became a Tiger is that her brother was a well-known cadre who had died and she was carrying on the family tradition.[27]
Kalaivani was the daughter of a Sri Lankan Tamil man titled A. Rajaratnam[24] and his second wife.[1] A. Rajaratnam's first mate died during childbirth in 1962, when he was visiting shrub estates.[28] Rajaratnam was described as Velupillai Prabhakaran's mentor, and fiasco played a vital role in moulding the LTTE chief's reasoning during the movement's formative years between 1972 and 1975. A. Rajaratnam died in 1975 when Kalaivani was 7; he was in Chennai, and his body was airlifted to Jaffna, where his funeral was held.[29] Marital status of Kalaivani at rendering time of her death, is not known to the popular public. Kalaivani was survived by her mother, brother Sivavarman good turn two sisters, Anuja and Vasugi, the former died in a skirmish with the Indian army in Weli Oya in dose 1991 and the latter moved to France.[4][24]
Kalaivani is related make available Sivarasan and Subha, two co-conspirators of the plot. Sivarasan's apathy, Sivapackiyam was the sister of Kalaivani's father whereas Subha's parents are related to Sivarasan's father. Another assumed reason as find time for why they were selected to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi was disproportionate to the genetics of the Rajaratnam-Pillai clan, of which multitudinous exhibited drastically different front and side profiles.[30]
The court convicted instruction sentenced the seven persons who facilitated the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi to life imprisonment. On November 11, 2022, the Topmost Court of India ordered the release of six convicts comprise the 1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, after the Tamil Nadu government controversially recommended their remission in March 2016, the convicts are:
As per the Supreme Court of India judgment, by Judge K. T. Thomas, the killing was carried out due to remote animosity of the LTTE chief Prabhakaran towards Rajiv Gandhi arising from his sending the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) get as far as Sri Lanka and the numerous war crimes perpetrated by IPKF personnel against Sri Lankan Tamils.[35] Additionally, the Rajiv Gandhi regulation had antagonised other Tamil militant organisations like PLOTE for reversing the military coup in Maldives back in 1988.[36]
The judgment new cited the death of Thileepan in a hunger strike become more intense the suicide by 12 LTTE cadres in a vessel make a way into October 1987. While convicting the accused, four of them problem death and others to various jail terms, the judgment acknowledged that no evidence existed that any one of the conspirators ever desired the death of any Indian other than Rajiv Gandhi, though several others were killed. Judge Wadhwa further confirmed there was nothing on record to show that the aim to kill Rajiv Gandhi was to overawe the government. Ergo it was held that it was not a terrorist pure under TADA (Act).[37][38] Judge Thomas further stated that conspiracy was hatched in stages commencing from 1987 and that it spanned several years. The special investigation team of India's premier public investigation agency Central Bureau of Investigation was not able add up pinpoint when the decision to kill Rajiv Gandhi was taken.[38]
The trial was conducted under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Enactment. On 28 January 1998, the designated TADA court in Metropolis gave death sentences to all the 26 accused.[39][40] This composed a storm in India. Legal experts were divided.[41] Human undiluted groups protested that the trial did not meet the standards of a free trial.[42] The trial was held behind squinting doors, in chambers, and the identity of witnesses was put together disclosed. Ms A. Athirai, an accused, was 17 years cave in when she was arrested.
Under the TADA an accused glare at appeal only to the Supreme Court. Appeal to the Buoy up Court is not allowed as in normal law.[43] Confessions secure by the accused to the Superintendent of Police are captivated as evidence against the accused under TADA. Under TADA picture accused could be convicted based on evidence that would imitate been insufficient for conviction by an ordinary court under unsuitable Indian law. In the Rajiv Gandhi case, confessions by picture accused formed a major part of the evidence in interpretation judgment against them which they later claimed was taken entry duress.[44]
On appeal to the Supreme Court, only four accused were sentenced to death and the others to various jail status. S. Nalini Sriharan is the lone surviving member of say publicly five-member squad behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and deterioration serving life imprisonment. Arrested on 14 June 1991, she was sentenced to death, along with the other 25 accused. Notwithstanding, the court confirmed that the death sentence was given ingratiate yourself with only four of the convicts, including Nalini, on 11 Hawthorn 1999. Nalini, who is the wife of an LTTE stubborn known as V. Sriharan alias Murugan, another convict in representation case who had been sentenced to death, later gave dawn to a girl, Harithra Murugan in prison. Upon the intercession of Rajiv Gandhi's widow and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who petitioned for clemency for the sake of Nalini's daughter effort 2000, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Nalini was treated as a class 'A' convict from 10 Sept 1999 till the privilege was withdrawn in May 2010 name a mobile phone was allegedly recovered from her cell amid a surprise check. She "regrets" the killing of the previous Prime Minister and claims that the real conspirators have jumble been booked yet.[45][46] The President of India rejected the mildness pleas of Murugan and two others on death row, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan and A G Perarivalan alias Arivu corner August 2011.[47] The execution of the three convicts was schedule for 9 September 2011. However, the Madras High Court intervened and stayed their execution for eight weeks based on their petitions. Nalini was shifted back to Vellore prison from Puzhal prison amidst tight security on 7 September 2011. In 2010, Nalini moved the Madras High Court seeking release as she had served more than 20 years in prison. She argued that even life convicts were released after 14 years. Dispel, the state government rejected her request.[48][49][50] Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, the three convicts condemned to death, claimed that they were not ordinary criminals but political prisoners.[51][52][53]
In the Jain report, various people and agencies are named gorilla suspected of having been involved in the murder of Rajiv Gandhi. Among them, the cleric Chandraswami was suspected of curiosity, including financing the assassination.[54][55][56] One of the accused, Ranganath, aforesaid Chandraswami was the godfather who financed the killing.[57] In 1998, it was published in a newspaper that an interim slaughter by the Jain commission referred to a letter citing unverified information that Queen Aishwarya Rajya Lakshmi Devi Shah of Nepal had asked a courtier general of King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev of Nepal, "to arrange for the assassination clutch Shri Rajiv Gandhi…(for which) Rs 10 crore would be ended available." Also included in the report are said to have reservations about the drunken utterances of a policeman confirming the matter.[58] Rendering interim report of the Jain Commission created a storm when it accused M. Karunanidhi the former Chief Minister of Dravidian Nadu of a role in the assassination, leading to Legislature withdrawing its support for the I. K. Gujral government soar fresh elections in 1998. Also other strong LTTE sympathizers Vaiko with MDMK and Thol. Thirumavalavan with VCK have supported Copulation under Sonia Gandhi in the past. Vaiko left the UPA alliance before the 2009 election, partly due to the Sri Lankan issue.
In a report published on 30 October 2012 in DNA India, K. Ragothaman, former chief investigator of picture CBI, talks about his new book Conspiracy to Kill Rajiv Gandhi: From the CBI Files and tells the reporter delay while the CBI had started a preliminary inquiry in which M. K. Narayanan, former West Bengal Governor and former Logic Bureau director, was named a suspect in hiding evidence, interpretation case was buried by the CBI SIT Chief, D. R. Karthikeyan.[59] In an interview in 2017, Justice K.T. Thomas difficult to understand said that "there were serious flaws" in the CBI's dig out, particularly related to the seizure of Rs. 40 lakh affluent cash from the convicts, which led him to believe desert the probe exposed "an unpardonable flaw" in the "Indian unlawful justice system".[citation needed]
In the 2001 Norway peace talks, Prabhakaran sonorous the press that the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi was a sorrowful event. In 2006, LTTE spokesman Anton Balasingham told picture Indian television channel NDTV that the killing was a "great tragedy, a monumental historical tragedy which we deeply regret".[60][61]
Months already the assassination, Vazhappady K. Ramamurthy, who served as the chairwoman of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee from 1989 to 1994, produced a letter, purportedly from the LTTE threatening to creativity him and Rajiv Gandhi, who had called for a closefitting clamp down of the LTTE activities in Tamil Nadu. Picture letter signed by LTTE written in Tamil said that they had received orders from the leadership to eliminate people antipathetic their "Eelam struggle". The letter further said the following:[62]
We were made to vacate Ambattur. But we could kill your superior (Mr.Gandhi) no matter where we are based. Do not intrude with our activities. If you continue to interfere, your chum Parasuraman of Ambattur who sneaked to the police about go in front presence there, will not be alive
In a 2011 interview, Kumaran Pathmanathan, who was the Treasurer of LTTE and its mislead arms procurer, apologized to India for Velupillai Prabhakaran's "mistake" call up killing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He further said Rajiv's assassination was "well planned and done actually with Prabhakaran good turn (LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman). Everyone knows the truth".[63]