CBI awaiting responses of three countries in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case: SC told

The CBI is awaiting responses of three countries to its judicial requests seeking information related to a larger conspiracy in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991 by the suicide squad of Sri Lankan terror group LTTE, the probe agency said Tuesday.

The CBI told the Supreme Court during a hearing on the issue on Tuesday that 25 Letters Rogatory were sent to 24 countries, out of which the execution reports in part is awaited from three countries, it said. The agency also told the Bench that investigations by the Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency on most of the points raised by the Jain Commission of Inquiry have been completed and have been filed before the court, the CBI said.

However, finalising of some of the issues is based on the outcome of Letters Rogatory sent abroad, the agency said, adding that responses of three countries are awaited, it said. The agency refused to divulge the names of countries where LRs are pending. The Supreme Court had directed the CBI to file a status report on the further investigation conducted by the Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) of CBI on the mandate stipulated by the Jain Commission of Inquiry (JCI) and the same has been filed, it said.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Deepak Gupta was hearing the petition of 46-year-old A G Perarivalan, who has sought suspension of his life sentence in the assassination till the MDMA's probe is completed. The MDMA was set up in 1998 on the recommendations of the Justice M C Jain Commission of Inquiry which had probed the conspiracy aspect of Gandhi's assassination. It is headed by a CBI official and comprises officers from the Intelligence Bureau, the Research and Analysis Wing and the Revenue Intelligence, among other agencies.