‘Spare 3 on death row’: officer who probed Rajiv case is no longer angry

HE HELPED track down some of the suspects in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. He is not an abolitionist: he wants the death penalty for those who wage war against the nation. And he does believe that those in custody for the assassination are guilty.

And yet, two decades on, former CBI inspector J Mohanraj wants the three on death row to be freed.

Formerly in the Tamil Nadu police, Mohanraj was drafted into the CBI weeks after Rajiv Gandhi was killed in the bomb attack in Sriperumbuthur in May 1991. He was a patriot to the point of being a nationalist, young and angry. “As the son of an honest politician who had been thrown into prison during the emergency, I was no admirer of Indira Gandhi or her son. But this was not politics; it was a war on our nation. We were all furious,” he said from his home in Chennai.

“We were very angry at the LTTE, Tamil chauvinists and all others who we suspected had a role

“I AM not

against the death penalty... but these three deser ve freedom, having spent such a long time behind bars for playing a minor role in the plot”

in the conspiracy. We did not want to show them any mercy. You must understand our mindset; we were wounded by the killing of several people including a national leader,” he said.

“To make things worse, we received a transcript of a conversation between main accused Sivarasan and LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman, suggesting that the rebels expected widespread violence and resultant polarisation of Tamils in India that they could then exploit,” he added.

He is now 60 and his perspective has changed, even if gradually, with the youthful anger replaced by pity now. He believes V Srikaran alias Murugan, T Suthentharajan alias Santhan and AG Perarivelan alias Arivu — whose appeal against their death sentences is being heard in the Madras High Court — should be set free.

“Many of us inside felt that the agency was not doing enough to capture all the accused. In some ways, we even suspected some top officials of covering up the truth to help many big fish escape. I realised that these few caught were perhaps guilty, but that guilt was quite minor when one looks at the whole picture. They were mere pawns who may or may not have had an inkling of the real plan. And for that, the over two decades they have spent in prison is enough,” he said.

The attack and its aftermath affected the lives of many, including those of the investigators. Mohanraj was shattered with disappointment. From being an officer who took pride in being ramrod straight, Mohanraj admitted, he became “open to bribery” when he went back to the state police in March 1993, before the case came to a conclusion. “The case broke my spirit when I realised the futility of our efforts.”

He took voluntary retirement in 1997, but remained active. He floated the Jebamani Janata Party, named after his father, and has contested 15 elections to Parliament, the Assembly and the local body. In his campaigns and at any opportunity to speak, he has been talking of what he calls a flawed investigation, doctored reports, and various other commissions and omissions. When denied a chance to speak, he has tied a banner to his body and stood on the median of the road.

His protests were largely ignored by the official machinery. “Then the Tamil nationalists, whom I despised and who too were opposed to me, came to me with a request to talk about the inside stories of the investigation. They felt there was a story in it and thus a chance to argue that that the three persons on death row did not deserve it. I still am a patriot who has no time for chauvinists of any kind, Tamils or otherwise, but like them I too believe that executing the three would be an absolute mockery of justice,” he said.

He had read that Perarivalan has written in his book, An Appeal from Death Row, that he was among those who tortured him. “But I joined the SIT of the CBI only on July 10, by which time his questioning and confession were done with.”

On August 18, Mohanraj went to Vellore Central Prison to visit Perarivalan and met the others too. “I am not against the death penalty; you cannot treat a terrorist with compassion. But these three deserve freedom, having spent such a long time behind bars for playing a minor role in the plot. If needed, I am ready to depose before the court to prove their insignificance in the actual conspiracy,” he said.