* indicates link to Amazon.com
bookshop on line
|
see also related links - |
|
Rajiv Gandhi Assassination -
Nadesan Satyendra, 23 October 1999 |
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International
appeals against verdict in Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Trial, 1998/99
"...Amnesty International is concerned that 26 people sentenced to
death by a special court in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu on 28 January
1998 may not have received a fair trial according to international standards for
fair trial .. Twenty-four men and women - 15 Sri Lankan and nine Indian nationals -
were found guilty of conspiracy to murder the former Prime Minister of India,
Rajiv Gandhi. ..Mr
Gandhi was killed by a bomb explosion in Tamil Nadu in May 1991.
The legislation under which they were tried - the Terrorist and
Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) - contravenes several international
standards for fair trial, including the holding of trials in camera and
the non-disclosure of the identity of witnesses.
In addition, although the majority of those accused were arrested
in July 1991,
a charge sheet was not drawn up until
May 1992 and a preliminary trial did not begin until May 1993. The trial itself took place in January 1994 in the Poonamallee
jail in Madras, designated a special court under TADA, where many of
those sentenced had been detained for almost seven years since arrest.
.." |
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Accused in Rajiv case not given fair
Trial - Law Committee, 1999 |
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Rajiv Gandhi - the Secret Trial, 1992 |
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Rajiv Gandhi's Assassination: Transnational Connections
- Major General Asfir Karim, 1993 |
|
Rajiv
Gandhi Assassination: Highlights of Complex Plot, India Today Report,
1996 |
|
Jain Commission Report on Rajiv Gandhi
Assassination - 1997 |
|
Prabhu
Chawla on Jain Commission Report, 1997 |
|
India
lack on grit on Tamil Tigers led to Rajiv assassination says Jyotindra
Nath Dixit, 1997 |
|
Who killed Olof Palme and Rajiv Gandhi?,
1997 |
|
Who really killed Rajiv Gandhi? - Norman Baker 1992 |
Book Review by Sachi Sri Kantha, 17 July 2004
-
I have highest regard for the police officers of any nation, as long as
they themselves are uncorrupt, unpretentious and abide by the laws which they
profess to uphold as their duty. Like thousands of folks, I had a policeman
in my family. My maternal uncle Puvanendran was a lowly police constable in
the Sri Lanka of 1950s, and my childhood memories include being ‘playful
handcuffing’ by him. He quit the police force in early 1960s, when he had to
learn Sinhalese language for salary increment and other benefits. In early
1960s, another of my uncles [K.T.Nadarajah, a maternal cousin of my mother
and an elder sibling of journalist K.T.Rajasingham] lived in the same
compound with us at Wellawatte, Colombo. He was serving as a police
constable at the Bambalapitiya station. Nada uncle’s pastime during his
off-duty hours was settling with a bottle of arrack and a capella singing of
poet Kannadasan’s Tamil movie songs. Both uncles Puvanendran and Nadarajah
are not among the living now.
Tamil movies produced in Madras usually portray policemen as two-dimensional
caricatures or as foil for Chaplinisque comedy. But the 1962 tear-jerker
movie Policekaran Magal, starring S.V.Sahasranamam, R.Muthuraman,
R.Vijayakumari and comedian J.P.Chandrababu was an exception. My early
memories of how an Indian policeman of contemporary era struggles hard in
his job was from veteran actor Sahasranamam’s role as a police constable. I
provide these snippets from my Sri Lankan days as introduction to assert
that I hate to be mean-spirited to any worthy effort of an Indian police
officer.
Thus, I’ll assess the book authored by Devarayapuram Ramasamy (D.R.)
Kaarthikeyan on the Rajiv Gandhi assassination with utmost sincerity based
on the material provided by the author in his text.
Kaarthikeyan is a Tamil, and he served as the Chief of Special Investigation
Team (SIT), established to un-knot the mystery behind Rajiv Gandhi’s
assassination, which took place in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, on May 21,
1991. Altogether, as listed in the Appendix D of the book, the SIT team
consisted of 71 police officers, including the author; there were 4 Deputy
Inspectors General of Police, 8 Superintendents of Police of CBI, 14 Deputy
Superintendents of Police and 44 Inspectors of Police.
Already, Rajeev Sharma, a journalist (*
Beyond the Tigers – Tracking Rajiv
Gandhi Assassination, Kaveri Books, New Delhi, 1998). and Subramanian Swamy, a
politician, (*
The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi – Unanswered Questions and
Unasked Queries, Konark Publishers, Delhi, 2000) have presented their
versions of ‘truth’.
In comparison to Rajeev Sharma and Subramanian Swamy,
because of his lead role as the Chief of SIT, Kaarthikeyan would have been
privy to much (as of now) unclassified information on the 1991 Sriperumbudur
tragedy; thus I had greater expectations of being educated by this book.
Sadly, this book was a disappointment. Like a professional strip-tease
artist, Kaarthikeyan whets the curiosity of his audience in the cover blurb,
but comes up short on in-depth revelations. What is revealed by him in 220
pages of main text - and 5 years after the Supreme Court’s Appeal verdict -
is nothing new. But, I learnt from the book, what type of a person
Kaarthikeyan is, though I have not met him even once.
My assembled profile of Kaarthikeyan, the senior author of the book, can be
presented as seven findings.
Finding 1: Kaarthikeyan is a gung-ho police chief who wouldn’t wilt when the
Destiny stares at him.
The author states his credo in his Preface: “I believe in destiny. When the
time comes, no one can keep you on this planet; until that time comes, no
one can take you away. I contended that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was
killed in her official residence by her own security guards; everyone born
on this planet has to die, and by undertaking such a dangerous task, I have
only added one more mode of dying.” [p.x] This was Kaarthikeyan’s answer to
his well wishers who were worried that the task he had undertaken to unravel
Rajiv assassination was “too dangerous an assignment”, since “the group
responsible for the assassination was identified as the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE).”
Finding 2: Kaarthikeyan is nothing but a chicken-little when the Destiny
stares at him.
Kaarthikeyan has informed the readers on how the ‘warrant’ on the LTTE
leader was delivered in a chicken-little fashion. To quote, “Towards the end
of January 1992, we decided to formally cite Prabhakaran and Pottu Omman as
accused in the case and took steps, as per the Indian Criminal Procedure
Code, to declare them as proclaimed offenders. The Sri Lankan government
helped us in publishing the proclamation warrants in Sri Lankan newspapers.
But due to the conditions in the north-east of Sri Lanka, the government
expressed its inability to have the warrants served at the place of
residence of the offenders” [p.150].
What happened to the gung-ho spirit of Kaarthikeyan who never feared for his
life? Why couldn’t he travel to Prabhakaran’s land to deliver the warrant
directly to his nemesis in 1992 – like a real man? Why had he to depend on
the Sri Lankan government ‘publishing the proclamation warrants in Sri
Lankan newspapers’. Was this the correct step of a macho man? Prabhakaran
and Pottu Amman were not even Indian citizens, and to issue proclamation
warrants to them for a court trial in India via notices in Sri Lankan
newspapers and tag them as ‘proclaimed offenders’ is long on publicity stunt
but short on due process of law.
Finding 3: Kaarthikeyan was a total ignoramus about Sri Lankan Tamil
affairs, until June 1989.
To the request made by the then Cabinet Secretary T.N.Seshan, asking him to
visit Sri Lanka, Kaarthikeyan confesses sheepishly: “I said, ‘I have never
been to Sri Lanka. To be honest, I have not even read much about Sri Lanka.
I have not even been following closely the happenings in Sri Lanka.” [p.187]
This was in mid 1989.
Finding 4: One of Kaarthikeyan’s favorite English words is ‘interrogation’
and its exaggerated or euphemistic variants.
Between pages 42 and 114, I counted this nasty word being used at
least 32 times - specifically on Sri Lankan Tamils living in Tamil Nadu and
low-brow Tamils of India. These deserve verbatim citations.
“While this was happening, the local police arrested a smuggler hailing from
Thiruthuraipoondi, a coastal village, based on information from Shankar’s
interrogation. During interrogation by the SIT’s tracking team, the smuggler
identified the kurta pyjama clad man as an LTTE cadre called Sivarasan”
[p.42]
“ He [one of the investigators, that is] had seen this girl at
Bhagyanathan’s house and had wanted to interrogate her. But one had to
collect sufficient material before embarking on interrogation.” [p.43]
“Her [Nalini] brother Bhagyanathan had been picked up for interrogation by
the SIT on the basis of the Haribabu documents.” [p.43]
“We now had sufficient material to confront Bhagyanathan. When we took him
to his house, he made a vain attempt to run away, but was prevented.” [p.43]
“Bhagyanathan’s interrogation disclosed his links with the LTTE.” [p.44]
“Interrogation of Arivu, Payas and Jayakumar brought in further leads.”
[p.53]
“After his [Ramanan] arrival, Nixon left for Jaffna. This confirmed what we
had already learned from the interrogation of Bhagyanathan.” [p.60]
“From the interrogation of Robert Payas we got an address in Madipakkam that
used to be frequented by Sivarasan.” [p.61]
“Interrogation of these suspects [Vijayanandan and Vanan] and comparison of
notes helped us to establish that Ruso, Vijayanandan and the one-legged
Suresh Kumar alias Sivaroopan were part of Sivarasan’s team that landed at
Kodiakkarai on May 1. Interrogation of suspects and the accused brought to
light the existence of an extensive network of LTTE supporters and
sympathisers in Tamil Nadu.” [p.61]
“The accused had to be interrogated, the interrogation reports analysed and
inputs given for further investigation.” [p.62]
“A large number of Sri Lankan Tamils had been located and picked up for
interrogation on the basis of their links with Sivarasan.” [p.65]
“On the basis of the contact number provided to Sivaroopan, Thambi Anna was
also picked up for interrogation.” [p.65]
“Meanwhile, using the Foreigners’ Act, several Sri Lankan suspects were
detained as they did not possess valid documents to be in India. They were
detained and confined in a secure place, to be available for verification
and interrogation.” [p.65]
“Interrogation of some of the accused revealed that Sivarasan and Subha,
like all LTTE activists, were carrying cyanide capsules tied on a string
around their necks.” [p.66]
“Vanan disclosed that he was dropped at his niece’s house in Selaiyur, a
Chennai suburb. The niece and her husband were Sri Lankan Tamil refugees. We
picked them up for interrogation.” [p.67]
“His [Bhaskaran] interrogation quickly led us to another hideout set up by
Sivarasan in the Chennai suburb of Eveready Colony at Kodungaiyur, not very
far from Jayakumar’s house.” [p.70]
“After sustained interrogation, Vijayan disclosed that on Sivarasan’s
instructions, a pit had been dug in their kitchen, and many items belonging
to Sivarasan were concealed in it.” [p.72]
“For weeks Jayakumar had concealed this information from the investigators
despite sustained and intense interrogation – and to think that he was not
an LTTE cadre, but only a helper!” [p.73]
“Interrogation of Raja established that he was indeed Suthenthiraraja,
Sivarasan’s assistant.” [p.74]
“On sustained interrogation, Shanmugham gave us two good pieces of
information – one, that the LTTE had concealed a large quantity of
explosives, petrol and diesel and some wireless sets in the Kodiakkarai
jungles. He knew the actual spots where these had been concealed in deep
pits. The second information he probably coughed up because the officer who
was interrogating him had got it from Murugan and probed Shanmugham about
it.” [p.81]
“As no further information about arms or gold biscuits came from Shanmugham,
the senior officer who interrogated Shanmugham, asked his subordinates to
handcuff him and keep him in the local police station.” [p.82]
“During a traffic check on July 27, a policeman stopped two men on a
motorcycle in Gounderpalayam and took them for interrogation. The men were
Vicky and Raghu, both Sri Lankan Tamils and LTTE cadres…” [p.90]
“Ranganath’s interrogation resulted in identifying and seizing the blue (now
white) Fiat car or Tiruchy Santhan.” [p.106]
“Using a lawyer, Dhanasekaran filed a petition in the High Court of Chennai
requesting that he be interrogated only in the presence of his lawyer.”
[p.112]
“The smuggler was then taken to the RPF station. His interrogation did not
help.” [p.114]
Kaarthikeyan’s professional zeal in interrogating Sri Lankan Tamils and low
brow Tamils of India borders on pathological excess. For balance, I wonder
whether he showed the same zeal in ‘interrogating’ Congress Party bigwigs
who were in Rajiv’s vicinity on that fateful night of May 21, 1991? A select
list include, Maragatham Chandrasekhar and her daughter Latha Priyakumar,
K.Moopanar, Vaazhapadi Ramamurthy and Jayanthi Natarajan. Understandably,
Kaarthikeyan is mum on his ‘interrogations’ of these bigwigs. Why? With such
a cluster of bigwigs attending that function, it stretches credibility that
only 16 photographs - ten photographs of amateur Haribabu and ‘six others
taken by a photographer who had accompanied Shankar Ganesh’s music troupe
were the only ones to be taken before the assassination’ [p.26].
The author also informs about the peculiar predicaments to the two videos
taken on the event site. “The two videos taken at the Sriperumbudur meeting
site – one arranged by the local organisers and the other by the TNCC(I) –
had failed to capture the explosion. Whether this was due to design or
accident or tampering (as was widely alleged), or whether it was simply a
coincidence for which there could be a rational explanation, had to be
examined in depth.” [p.121] Accident is plausible, but chances of both (not
one) videocameras - manned by two different cameramen - failing to capture
the blast seem a bit unbelievable, isn’t it? Few sentences later,
Kaarthikeyan resolves the puzzle as follows: “The video film of the local
organisers had developed a lot of disturbance towards the end, because of
poor quality of film. We were convinced that no one had tampered with it,
especially after the videos were examined by technical experts in Chennai.
But to set aside all doubts, the video cassette was sent to the FBI
laboratory and their tests confirmed our own findings that there was no
tampering.” Well, what happened to the video of TNCC(I)? Kaarthikeyan is
silent on the fate of videocassette arranged by the TNCC(I).
Finding 5: Kaarthikeyan is a keeper of many Indian ‘national security’
secrets and is not a ham to reveal them to the public in his own words.
It appears to me that Kaarthikeyan is scrupulously aversive to even mention
the Indian spy agency. The only reference in the book to RAW, is also not
directly from the author; it appears as a quotation from a vapid source -
none other than The Broken Palmyra book of Rajan Hoole and colleagues. For
reasons of convenience, Kaarthikeyan had meekily copied the following
sentence: “All of them [referring to the Eelam Tamil militant groups]
received succor from India and were monitored by the Indian intelligence
organisation RAW (Research and Analysis Wing.).” Isn’t it clever? only
monitored by the RAW? This is akin to prostitutes claiming that they were in
bed with their customers only to check whether their contacts are shaved or
not. Kaarthikeyan is either joking or needs his brain scanned for amnesia
causing lesions!
Kaarthikeyan also provides the statistic that 288 prosecution witnesses (PWs)
gave evidence, in the assassination trial which commenced on 19 January
1994. Of the 288 witnesses, he provides the names of only a couple. The
first PW was Madhuram, the police inspector in charge of the Sriperumbudur
police station. Then, excluding the name of K.Ragothaman [chief
investigating officer of SIT], Kaarthikeyan is mum on the identity of the
286 individuals who served as PWs. Rather he provides a blanket sentence,
“We produced 287 more witnesses – there was a governor of state, an
ambassador of India, a senior army officer, political leaders, police
scientists, senior journalists, doctors, police officers and large number of
commoners from Sri Lanka and India – who tendered evidence in the Designated
Court.” What was his motive in hiding the identities of these PWs?
After
intensively reading the Supreme Court verdicts of Wadhwa, Thomas and Qadri,
I had compiled the names of 144 PWs who receive citation in the judgements.
[vide, Pirabhakaran Phenomenon series, part 26, in the sangam website] Here
is a sample; music director Shankar Ganesh was PW 18; Maragatham
Chandrasekhar was PW 29; L.D.N.J.Wijesinghe, Senior Superintendent of
Police, Sri Lanka & Interpreter of LTTE wireless transmissions was PW 67;
Dr.Cecelia Cyril (who according to Kaarthikeyan conducted the postmortem on
Rajiv Gandhi’s corpse) was PW 121; Dr.Amrit Patnaik, who conducted the
postmortem on the remains of assassin Dhanu, was PW 147; P.G.Abeykoon
Bandara, Deputy Controller, Dept.of Immigrations and Emigration, Sri Lanka,
was PW 185; Brigadier Vivek Sapatnekar, IPKF Operations, Sri Lanka was PW
186; Kasi Anandhan, member of LTTE Central Committee was PW 242; Vazhapadi
K.Ramamurthi, President of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee & later Thamilzhaga
Rajiv Congress was PW 258; Dr.P.Chandrasekaran, Director of Tamil Nadu
Forensic Science Laboratory, was PW 280; and Chief Investigating Officer of
SIT, K.Raghothaman was PW 288.
Finding 6: Kaarthikeyan is an afficinado of deception.
May be to hide his disappointment on the criticism delivered by the three
Supreme Court Justices, Kaarthikeyan had tactically blacked out the details.
I cite a few specific stinging comments made by Justice Wadhwa [who
delivered the lengthiest judgement] in his verdict on the dubious validity
of wireless-radio intercepts, on which the prosecution built up its case
against LTTE leader Pirabhakaran and LTTE’s Intelligence Chief Pottu Amman.
To quote Justice Wadhwa,
(1) “Suspicion however strong does not take the place of proof. Wireless
messages are transmitted and received in coded language. It is nobody’s case
that Robert Payas (Accused 9) knew the nature or the contents of the
messages. It must not be lost sight of that LTTE had various activities and
all LTTE men were not necessarily involved in achieving the object of
conspiracy. Evidence shows that other LTTE activists who had come to India
were also engaged in arranging houses for various purposes like housing the
injured LTTE cadre, storing of medicines, etc.”
(2) “It appears to us that prosecution is looking at every circumstance with
the proverbial jaundiced eye.”
(3) “Prosecution also does not tell us the contents of the code sheets and
how these were used by Murugan (Accused 3). Charge under Section 6(1A) of
Indian Wireless and Telegraphy Act, must, therefore, fail.”
(4) “When the prosecution during the course of the trial, which lasted over
a number of years, had taken the stand that killing of Rajiv Gandhi was a
terrorist act, it cannot now turn about and say that killing itself was not
a terrorist act but was committed to achieve the object of conspiracy which
was to overawe the Government. As a matter of fact in the statement of Kasi
Anandhan (PW-242), who was a member of the Central Committee of LTTE, it has
come on record that he met Rajiv Gandhi in March 1991 when Rajiv Gandhi
supported the stand of LTTE and had admitted that it was his mistake in
sending IPKF to Sri Lanka and wanted LTTE to go ahead with its agitation.
That being the evidence brought on record by the prosecution there is no
question of it now contending that there was conspiracy to overawe the
Government. Its stand throughout has been that it was the personal motive of
Prabhakaran and others to commit terrorist act by killing Rajiv Gandhi.
Under Section 3(1) of TADA overawing the Government cannot be the
consequence but it has to be the primary object. There is nothing on record
to show that the intention to kill Rajiv Gandhi was to overawe the
Government…”
Finding 7: Kaarthikeyan is a self-serving discriminator, and even
discriminates Rajiv Gandhi [when it comes to death].
Kaarthikeyan, repeats in page 189 of the text what he had presented in his
preface about his belief in destiny.
“I have to discharge my duty. I never
fear for my life. I believe in destiny. Till my time comes, nobody can kill
me and when the time comes, nobody can save me. So, why bother about
something which is certainly going to happen one day. By worrying about it
you will have constant fear of death.”
Great. What Kaarthikeyan professes is a credo of life, with a religious
frame of reference; and he is entitled to it. Millions of Hindus have lived
their lives for thousands of years on this noble credo. According to this
credo implied and/or expressed, the major controls are divine and not
subject to human effort, planning and/or volition. If this be the case, why
the untimely death of Rajiv Gandhi should be treated differently? What is
good for Kaarthikeyan should be fine for Rajiv Gandhi as well, and he should
not discriminate the former prime minister of India. Even Rajiv had
premonitions of a violent death for him before he ascended to prime-ministership
in 1984, and his wife Sonia has recorded it in her coffee table book, Rajiv
(1992, p.9). Couldn’t it be taken that Rajiv reaped what he politically
sowed – not only in Sri Lanka, but also in Punjab, Kashmir and other
troubled states, including Tamil Nadu? Remember, few months before Rajiv’s
death, the then Prime Minister Chandrasekhar – acting on the indulgence of
Congress Party which precariously sustained his prime-minister rank –
sneakily imposed Presidential rule in Tamil Nadu, by sacking the DMK
government.
For sure, Kaarthikeyan would be familiar with the old adage, Thinai
Vithaithavan Thinai Arupaan; Vinai Vithaithavan Vinai Arupaan [One who sows
millet, reaps millet; one who sows misery, reaps misery]. The same message
appears in other Tamil poetic works as well. An example is Saint
Pattinattar’s admonition ‘Than Vinai Thannai Chudum; Ootappam Veedai Chudum’
[literal translation: One will be burnt by his fate; and the cursed Appam
will burn the House.]. By trying to embellish Rajiv’s premature death at the
hand of a woman assassin whom he identifies as Thanu – an LTTE cadre - with
legal gibberish and national security concerns, Kaarthikeyan is not being
true to his own credo of life. In acknowledging the concern of his 84 year
old mother, who wanted her son [Kaarthikeyan] “ to give up this ardous and
risky assignment” of solving the mystery of Rajiv’s assassination,
Kaarthikeyan has also revealed tangentially that his aged mother had
comprehended the Hindu concepts of destiny and death, better than him.
In sum, Kaarthikeyan – for reasons well known to him - had failed to serve
the full course of ‘truth’ in his book. Deliberate omissions [especially the
activities relating to the infamous Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) in
Eelam soil between 1987 and May 1991, which was one crucial precipitating
factor in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination] and deceptions are replete in the
book.
Unwillingness of Kaarthikeyan to reveal the larger context of the Supreme
Court (Apex Court) verdicts pertaining to the Rajiv Gandhi assassination
trial, – especially in the 21st century, when complete details have been
posted by the CBI for cross checking by analysts – is an academic crime, I
would say. These omissions and deceptions amply proves that Kaarthikeyan’s
version of ‘truth’ is deformed by design, and strains credibility.
Other than a miniscule chunk in the penultimate page of the text (p.212),
the findings and verdicts delivered by Justice D.P.Wadhwa, Justice
K.T.Thomas and Justice S.S.M.Qadri have been completely blacked out by
Kaarthikeyan. Those who are interested in finding what these three Justices
observed on the Rajiv Gandhi trial, can refer to my Pirabhakaran Phenomenon
series [parts 28, 29 and 30, posted in the sangam website]. Kaarthikeyan’s
note in the preface that, “To condense all the material into a book of about
250 pages was unlikely to be an easy task.” is nothing but a convenient
cop-out [No pun intended].
