A video showing the assassin was allegedly suppressed by then IB chief M K Narayanan NewDelhi:
The
‘chief investigating officer’ of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, K
Ragothaman, has alleged that the then IB chief, M K Narayanan, had
“suppressed a vital piece of evidence” — a video tape showing “human
bomb” Dhanu at the Sriperumbudur venue prior to the former prime
minister’s arrival.
In a book authored by him, Ragothaman said that although a “preliminary inquiry” had been conducted in connection with the missing video, Narayanan, who is now Bengal governor, had been “allowed to go scot-free” by the chief of the special investigation team, D R Karthikeyan.
The just-published book, “Conspiracy to kill Rajiv Gandhi – From CBI files”, claims that the tape, which had been taken from the videographer by the IB the day after Rajiv Gandhi was blown up by Dhanu on May 21, 1991, was never shared with the SIT in the investigation of the assassination.
Ragothaman wrote, “The assassin gang, as per our investigation, was very much in the sterile zone for more than two-and-a-half hours waiting for its target.” The suppression of the video evidence helped the Tamil Nadu police get away with the claim that Dhanu had sneaked into the sterile zone after Rajiv Gandhi’s arrival at the venue around 10 pm.
The tape recovered by the Tamil Nadu police was found to have interpolations in the form of Doordarshan’s news bulletins about the assassination. Ragothaman therefore asserted that the tape taken by the IB officials was “the original one and that the video given to the local police was a substituted one”.
The alleged manipulation, according to Ragothaman, was meant to erase video evidence of the kind of people Dhanu had interacted with at the venue, thereby sparing embarrassment to the Congress party in the middle of the 1991 Lok Sabha election. He asked: would Narayanan have dared “to damage the goal of the Congress party, irrespective of his personal affiliation to Rajiv Gandhi’s family?”
Though he was formally in charge of the investigation and was therefore in the witness box for 67 days, Ragothaman wrote that he had not been taken into confidence by his superior Karthikeyan about the recovery of the tape by IB. He came to know about it later through the report of the Justice J S Verma Commission which had probed the security lapses leading to the assassination.
In a book authored by him, Ragothaman said that although a “preliminary inquiry” had been conducted in connection with the missing video, Narayanan, who is now Bengal governor, had been “allowed to go scot-free” by the chief of the special investigation team, D R Karthikeyan.
The just-published book, “Conspiracy to kill Rajiv Gandhi – From CBI files”, claims that the tape, which had been taken from the videographer by the IB the day after Rajiv Gandhi was blown up by Dhanu on May 21, 1991, was never shared with the SIT in the investigation of the assassination.
Ragothaman wrote, “The assassin gang, as per our investigation, was very much in the sterile zone for more than two-and-a-half hours waiting for its target.” The suppression of the video evidence helped the Tamil Nadu police get away with the claim that Dhanu had sneaked into the sterile zone after Rajiv Gandhi’s arrival at the venue around 10 pm.
The tape recovered by the Tamil Nadu police was found to have interpolations in the form of Doordarshan’s news bulletins about the assassination. Ragothaman therefore asserted that the tape taken by the IB officials was “the original one and that the video given to the local police was a substituted one”.
The alleged manipulation, according to Ragothaman, was meant to erase video evidence of the kind of people Dhanu had interacted with at the venue, thereby sparing embarrassment to the Congress party in the middle of the 1991 Lok Sabha election. He asked: would Narayanan have dared “to damage the goal of the Congress party, irrespective of his personal affiliation to Rajiv Gandhi’s family?”
Though he was formally in charge of the investigation and was therefore in the witness box for 67 days, Ragothaman wrote that he had not been taken into confidence by his superior Karthikeyan about the recovery of the tape by IB. He came to know about it later through the report of the Justice J S Verma Commission which had probed the security lapses leading to the assassination.
No comments:
Post a Comment