New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed the Central Government to give the court the information of investigating the conspiracy to build a bomb belt used by suicide bomber Sagittarius in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on Thursday. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991 in Sriperumbudur, Tamilnadu, using this bomb belt. A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi has sentenced AG. Perarivalan’s petition sought information on the investigation done on this dimension of conspiracy. Perarivalan is lifting life imprisonment in the case of murder in the conspiracy case.
Justice Gogoi told Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, who was present on behalf of the CBI, “What is the result of the investigation or further investigation of this aspect? Please tell us about this, we only want this.” Perarivalan lawyer Gopal Shankarnarayan wanted to raise many issues. On this, the bench said that as far as the matter pertaining to Perarivalan is concerned, it is just a conspiracy investigation into making belt bombs.
Based on the report of Perarivalan Jain Commission, Rajiv Gandhi is demanding a larger investigation into the murder case. Jain commission investigated the conspiracy to the murder. On this petition this year, the apex court had asked the CBI to tell the time limit on May 1, in which she will complete the investigation of the plot of the murder. In the hearing, Maninder Singh had told the court that some investigation will take some time to investigate the conspiracy because some accused fled abroad and their extradition would be needed.
In the last year, the Perarivalan case went to the Supreme Court. Perarivalan argued that neither the CBI nor the multi-disciplinary surveillance agency (MDMA) examined the correct perspective of the case. Perarivalan accused him of being a high-ranking person. MDMA was created to investigate the vast dimension of the case. The matter will be heard again next week.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on 21 May 1991 in a suicide attack near Sriperumbudur and Murugan, Santhan, Perarivelan, Nalini, Robert, Jayakumar, and Ravichandran were convicted in the case.
After the recommendation of the Cabinet and the appeal of Rajiv’s wife Sonia Gandhi, Nalini’s death sentence in 2000 was turned into a lifetime imprisonment. The Supreme Court had convicted Murugan, Santhan, and Perarivelan to delay their decision in February 2014 due to delay in decision making in the life sentence.
