CBI has 3 weeks to file status report on Rajiv Gandhi assassination
MULTI DISCIPLINARY MONITORING AGENCY, SET UP IN 1998, IS HEADED BY A CBI OFFICIAL AND INCLUDES OFFICERS FROM IB,
RAW AND REVENUE INTELLIGENCE AND OTHER AGENCIES
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Tuesday sought within four weeks the latest status report from the Central Bureau of Investigation-led Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) on its probe into unravelling a larger conspiracy behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The top court said the last MDMA report is about a year old, and at that time response was awaited on several Letters Rogatory (LRS) sent to foreign countries with regard to the case.
The MDMA, set up in 1998 on the recommendations of Justice MC Jain Commission of Inquiry which had probed the conspiracy aspect of Gandhi’s assassination, is headed by a CBI official and comprises officers from IB, RAW and Revenue Intelligence and other agencies. A bench of L Nageswara Rao and Hemant Gupta told additional solicitor general Pinki Anand, appearing for the MDMA, that the latest report should also include status of LRS sent to Sri Lanka, Thailand and other countries.
“Latest status report be filed in four weeks. List the matter after four weeks,” the bench said.
The top court was hearing a plea of 46-year-old AG Perarivalan, who has sought suspension of his life sentence in the case till the completion of the probe by MDMA into the larger conspiracy behind the assassination.
At the outset, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for Perarivalan said that his role was only limited to procuring nine-volt batteries, which were allegedly used in the improvised explosive device (IED) that had killed Gandhi.
Anand opposed the submission of Sankaranarayanan and said his role was not limited to procurement of batteries.
On March 14 last year, the apex court had asked the MDMA to file a status report in four weeks with regard to the status of a LR sent to Sri Lanka for examining one of the accused Nixon alias Suren, who is lodged in Colombo jail.
The top court had dismissed a plea of Perarivalan seeking recall of the May 11, 1999 verdict upholding his conviction.
It said the material brought on record before it does not inspire confidence to interfere with the verdict in which Perarivalan and three others were initially awarded death sentence, which was later commuted to life term.
The CBI had earlier submitted that Perarivalan had even visited Jaffna in Sri Lanka in the first week of June 1990, besides attending a public meeting along with other conspirators which was addressed by former Prime Minister V P Singh on May 7, 1991 in Tamil Nadu.