| by L.Annadoure
( November 04,
2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Special Investigation Team which
had been constituted to investigate into the Assassination of Shri Rajiv Gandhi
had comprised in it Mr.DR Karthikeyan
who was Inspector General of
Police/Joint Director of Criminal Bureau
of Investigation and the Chief of the
Special Investigation Team, 5 Inspectors General of Police, 8 Superintendants of Police from Criminal
Bureau of Investigation,14 Deputy Superintends of Police and 44 Inspectors of
Police.
Previous Parts:
The Chief
Investigating officer was one of the Superintendents of police Mr.K.Ragothaman
who has written a book in Tamil under the caption “Rajiv Gandhi Kolai Vazhaku”
in November 2009 which has been published by Kizhakku Pathippagam, Chennai. The
Chief Investigating officer who, at page No.205 in Chapter 30-‘May Speak
Henceforth’, pours forth the distress, a
sense of contrition and feelings of remorsefulness for the deliberate failure on the part of the chief
of Intelligence Bureau Mr.M.K.Naraynanan in
returning the video cassette with which the videographer was video graphing the sequence of events in the course of the political rally at the place
at Sriperumpudur some time before the incident of bomb blast. But the
question is whether such belated spurt of feelings was genuine or spurious or
it was a an act of pretence of excuse for some act of failure on the part of
the Special Investigation Team in general or knowingly had the Chief
Investigating officer Mr.K.Ragothaman been privy to things which he ought not
to have done but he had done much against his Will and conscience and contrary
to principles of justice has to be
assessed a fresh in the light of a Television programme telecast in
Times Now TV at 9.PM on 30.10.2012.
The Chief Investigating officer has written a
book in English under the caption “Conspiracy To Kill Rajiv Gandhi – From CBI
Files” which has came to be
published recently and according to the
view of the presenter of the programme it
is a shocking revelation that there was a video cassette pertaining the visuals of the events culminating in the assassination
of Shri Rajiv Gandhi and the stunning claim on the part of the Chief
Investigating officer Mr.K.Ragothaman is that the said video Cassette had not
been returned to the Special
Investigation Team to facilitate the investigation.
Some of the passages found especially in chapter 30-‘May Speak Henceforth’ in “Rajiv
Gandhi Kolai Vazhaku” which are to be considered as earlier statements made by Mr.Ragothaman may help us in
understanding the realities inherent in the assassination case and here are some passages rendered in English for perusal,
“ It may be remembered that two Commission were
appointed to enquire into the Assassination of Shri Rajiv Gandhi. First one was
Justice J.S.Verma Commission and second one was Justice M.C.Jain Commission.
When J.S.Justice
Verma Commission was appointed it was being said that the commission was going to enquire into firstly of the security lapses and then the conspiracy entered
into amongst the conspirators to
assassinate Rajiv Gandhi. But Justice J.S.Verma had evinced his difficulty and
inability in taking up the issue of conspiracy at first instance. The reason for
his reluctance was investigation was going on then. He said he could not go
into the question of conspiracy until the investigation was over and done with.
Therefore the
Government order was redirected to Justice J.S.Verma Commission after revision
so as to enable it to enquire into security lapses and shortcomings which led to the assassination of Shri .Rajiv
Gandhi. Accordingly Justice J.S.Verma Commission began to enquire into security
lapses and shortcomings which led to the
assassination of Shri .Rajiv Gandhi.
From the Director
of CBI on wards several persons had testified before these two Commissions. Several
important documents had been filed in evidence. Among the documents was a
letter which was written by the Chief of Intelligence Bureau Mr.M.K.Naraynan to
the then the Prime Minister of India.
In that letter Mr.M.K.Naraynan
wrote to say that he was in receipt of a video cassette . The Video cassette
containing the visuals taken on that day was being analysed and that he would soon inform about
it.
But even after
the completion of enquiry by Justice J.S.Verma Commission and completion of the investigation by CBI,
the Intelligence Bureau had not released any such video cassette. As the Chief
Investigating officer I was quite sure about it. If such a video cassette were
to have been in the hands of Intelligence Bureau and if that happened to be an
important piece of documentary evidence facilitating investigation then it
ought to have been returned to us.
Even at the fag
end of investigation the video cassette had not been forthcoming . Imagine for a moment. At the start of the
investigation we had not any other basis to proceed with except the photos
taken by Hari Babu. We had been groping in the dark. Had the Chief of
Intelligence Bureau given us the video cassette then it might have thrown rays of light!
On that night ,
from 7o’clock till 10 o’clock , Sivarasan and his team were loitering here and
there over the public meeting ground.
Had such visuals depicting as to who were all there at the place and who were
all talking to whom found recorded in the video cassette then it would have
greatly helped in starting the
investigation!
It revealed from
our investigation that Dhanu along with Latha Kannan had approached and talked
to Latha Priya Kumar and through her permission for garlanding was obtained.
The information as such which we obtained in the course of our
investigation would have been confirmed by the Video cassette as definitely
as a Nelli fruit lying in the centre of palm of hand ? The matters like who
were the persons with whom Sivarasan and others were talking to and how
permission was given them, the video cassette would have revealed and pointed
out.
But, thinking
that if CBI were to lay its hands on the video cassette then Mrs.Maragatham
Chandrasekar and her family members would find themselves in trouble, the
Intelligence Bureau had hidden it like hiding a whole pumpkin within a few
morsel of cooked rice.
After the completion of Justice J.S.Verma
Commission enquiry, with reporting to
Indian Government that security
arrangements were very poor and that the performance of CBI was worse then a case against the CBI officers was ordered
to be registered as per law.
In 1995, the
Government has entrusted the case for investigation to the Special Investigation Team of CBI.
Earlier, enquiry had been instituted against Tamil Nadu Police for security
lapses and failures and actions had been taken
against some police officers.
With orders
directing initiation of an enquiry against the CBI officers , the case was
entrusted to CBI itself and the case was entrusted in the hands of Superintendant of Police ranked officer.(
Normally enquiry would be made by officers in the rank of Deputy Superintendant
of Police).
Nevertheless,
there was no knowing as to what became of the enquiry, who were all the persons
who were examined, the decision taken, the result of the enquiry and whether it
was sent to government. To be said forthright, it is very doubtful whether the
case diaries would be available this day!
If the enquiry
were to have been conducted in a fair and proper manner then the answers to
questions like the areas where the CBI officers had erred and had failed in
their duties and why not even a wisp of information was not known to CBI well
in advance, would have been obtained.
But, as though born
to save, the hierarchy of officers beginning from Mr.M.K.Naraynan who were in the Intelligence Bureau, the
Chief of Special Investigation Team had acted thus and covered it up. By doing
so some individuals would have been protected. What a great blemish on the
Nation?
Although the
chapter 30 continues further, owing to brevity it may be stopped at this stage and
then we may revert to the debate as such telecast by Times Now.TV. The participants in the debate are the Chief Investigation
officer of Special Investigation Team Mr.D.R.Kathikeyan and the Chief Investigating officer of
Special Investigation Team K.Ragothaman who has published a new book in English
“Conspiracy To Kill Rajiv Gandhi – From
CBI Files”. According to the presenter of the programme the cover up has come
into the public domain and it has created a sensation.
The crux of the debate is as follows. The
questions posed by the presenter is that the matter as such is very a sensitive
subject, after having investigated the case how Mr.K.Ragothaman himself could
level an extremely sensational charges against Mr.DR Karthikeyan like there being a video cassette which had been tampered, edited manipulated, its existence and availability was suppressed from being presented for facilitating the
investigation and that Mr.DR Karthikeyan
had allowed then Chief of Intelligence Bureau to get away with suppressing
evidence and that whether Mr.K.Ragothaman
is sure about the accusation he
is making or he is shooting in the dark .
The answers
given by Mr.K.Ragthaman are that he had been the chief investigating officer
and two video cassettes were there which had covered Rajiv Gandhi Assassination
case. Mrs.Maragatham Chandarasekar, Congress politician had engaged a
videographer who was shooting the Shankar Ganesh music performance and videoing at the site of
the movements of the people in and
around the stage and the public site at Sriperumbudur and other videographer who was engaged by the TNCC president late Mr.Vazhapadi
Ramamurthy was covering the events of Shri Rajiv Gandhi from the
moment he had landed at Meenampakkam Air
Port, his participation in press
interviews and group meetings and that thereafter Mr.Vazhapadi Ramamurthy with the videographer had
followed the convoy of Shri Rajiv Gandhi and the said Videographer had continued
video graphing at the venue. The Video
cassette which was in the possession of Mr.Pazhapadai Ramamurthy was collected by the Special
Investigation Team from his office and the Video cassette which was in the
possession of the videographer engaged by Mrs.Maragatham Chandrasekaran was not secured by CBI
Special Investigation Team directly but
it was CB CID which had secured the video cassette at first and later said
Video cassette along with the case records had been handed over to Special Investigation
Team and that the Special Investigation Team had played the video cassette and found to
their chagrin that it did not appear to
be one taken spontaneously, for there were slip shots, music programme, some
gaps to be found and what impressed him most
was at the end of the cassette there was
Doordarshan news for the day 22nd
May 1991found recorded and Mr.K.Ragothaman has continued to answer questions
further posed by the Presenter by stating that the Video cassette would certainly
contain the visuals of Latha Kannan, her
daughter and Dhanu approaching Latha priya Kumar and talking to her and the
videocassette which they happened to view was not the original and that Mr.M.K.
Narayanan should have returned it to the Special Investigation Team and
what the Team viewed was one that was edited manipulated and erased and
the video cassette which was in the possession and custody of Mr.M.K.Naryanan and which he was scanning to identify the assassin
lady was the original and that was point of suppression according to
Mr.K.Ragothaman ?
Then
the presenter has posed a question to Mr.DR Karthiyekan by stating that
since the letter which Mr.M.K.Narayanan wrote to Prime Minister and copies
marked to Home Secretary and others recited that the video cassette was being scanned to identify the lady then he is bound
to tell as to where the video cassette was? The comprehensive reply made by Mr.DR.Karthikeyan
to the accusation levelled by K.Ragothaman are that there are no two sides in the matter
and that Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case as such had been protracted for several
years, the case was disposed of by the trial court, then the Appellate court consisting of 3
eminent justices of Supreme court had confirmed the judgment, thousands of pages of matters had been written
in newspapers and journals and thousand hours
of video were recorded and in his 21 years of remembrance he could not
definitely answer the questions until he has read the book written by
Mr.K.Ragothaman and as regards the video cassette it was thoroughly discussed , two commissions
of enquiry went for many years, trial before trial court went on for several
years and there were lot of politics in
it, there is nothing new in that and not even an inch beyond what he had found
and as regards non accompaniment of
local leaders with Shri Rajiv Gandhi like Mr.Moopanar, Mrs.Jayanthi Natarajan and
Mr.Pazhapadi Ramamurthy he would justify their failure by stating that Shri
Rajiv Gandhi used to walk very fast and that he did not want the local leaders
to follow him and even MDMA which in its
20 years of existence had not found anything, not even an inch beyond what he had found and he has
not liked the Media trial like the present one
and what ever video cassettes were available then were viewed and that
if anything further to be asked then
Mr.K.Ragothaman might ask then Director,
Joint Directors of IB at Chennai and Interpol too had praised the investigation
done by SIT as Model Investigation because political assassinations hardly ever end in
conviction.
The presenter
has posed a critical question whether there was tampering of contents of video
cassette, the visuals having been obliterated and whether somewhere in his heart there still lurks a belief that the contents of the video tape was tampered, manipulated, erased
and edited.
Mr.DR.
Karthigeyan’s candid and forthright answer
is that the ‘Video tape was hazy’ and
everybody had entertained doubts and suspicions about it.
Before we
proceed any further I would like to solicit the attention of readers to some
passages in the Book ‘Triumph of Truth,
The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination, The
investigation’ which has been co authored by Mr.DR.Karthikeyan and another
officer in the Special Investigation Team Mr.Radha Vinod Raju.
Page No.16,
‘Just moments
ago, she had been seen with Latha Kannan; she
along with a photographer, known to other journalists and photographers
as Haribabu’
‘Haribabu
focused the Chinon camera that he had borrowed to cover this special event and
took a picture of women’s enclosure.’
‘One party man,
after presenting his shawl to Rajiv Gandhi, posed for a photograph all the
while holding him with both arms!’
Page No.16, 3rd
Paragraph .
‘Jostled and jolted by mob
admirers around him, Rajiv Gandhi neared the stage. The videographers who were
on the makeshift stage, because the only power socket in the venue were
situated there, could hardly get clear coverage; with so many people crowding around
Rajiv Gandhi and coming in the way, the
videographers had no choice but to switch off the cameras.’
The readers’
indulgence is solicited to refer themselves to the earlier parts of the story
published by “The Sri Lankan Guardian web site. We have seen that the
photographs numbering 10 which were supplied by Hindu News paper were the only basis
for starting the investigation in the case.
The Chief of
Special Investigation Team Mr.DR.Karthikeyan would express his profound shock
and feeling of consternation at the Hindu News paper having supplied the
photographs and this is what he has say about it in the aforesaid book at page
No.25., “The photographs published by
The Hindu before we or Crime Branch registered the case, did create some
consternation among the investigators.”
It was a fact
that a photograph that of alleged photographer Haribabu was supplied by Hindu News Paper and it was also
a fact that before any one could get a
chance to see the corpse or even the investigators themselves could see the
corpse of the person said to be that of Haribabu
was disposed of in a mysterious and in a
hurried manner and therefore the identity of the alleged photographer Haribabu was
not established or proved beyond reasonable doubt.
As the passage
quoted above would give us amply to
understand that no video graphing of sequence of the events at the site was
done between 10.10 pm and 10.20 pm on
that fateful night. But the Special investigating officer Mr.K.Ragothaman would
contend that two videographers were videoing the events which they had played for
viewing and they had happened to see their contents and the videocassette which
was secured from CB CID was found to be tampered, edited and erased.
The power outlet which was atop the makeshift
stage did not help the two other videographers who were there on the stage.
Then there arise naturally the doubt as to how and from where the videographer
who was brought by Mr.Pazhapadi Ramamurthy and the other videographer who was engaged
by Mrs.Maragatham Chandrasekar did get electricity for their lights on the
video cameras.
Apart from the
four videographers who were said to have been there, there was also another photographer
brought in by Musician Shankar Ganesh from whom Mr.DR.Karthikeyan was said to have
procured six other photographs. The Special Investigating officer did not say anything
about the six photo which were procured from the photographer brought in by Musician
Shankar Ganesh. If the Video cassettes and photographs are to
be proved in evidence the legal requirement
is that the videographers and
photographers must speak about the videocassettes, photographs and of their negatives in evidence and similarly
the persons at whose instance the video graphs and photos have been taken must give evidence and
therefore it is highly doubtful whether legal requirements are fulfilled and
complied with. Therefore the benefit of doubts which were apparent should have
been given to the accused persons.
The letter which
was written by Mr.M.K.Narayanan to the Prime Minister was indicative of
doubtfulness as to the identity of the assassin which was yet to be
established by the Intelligence Bureau and
no effort was taken to establish the identity of the assassin and it
has already been pointed out as regards the doubts inherent as to the identity
of assassin.
That Special
Investigation Officer Mr.K.Ragothaman had failed to speak at first instance
about the original video cassette which was in the possession and custody of
Mr. M.K.Narayanan who had not returned
it, had been and is equally guilty of complicity
in suppression of evidence and in fact he had knowingly abetted the perpetration
of such an offence in order to protect his higher officer and the Chief of
Intelligence Bureau and therefore Mr.K.Ragothaman should only be shedding crocodile tears now
and has he been bono fide all along he would
have taken necessary legal steps against the offenders who ever they might have
been or irrespective their station in life and the office they held and what purpose
the writing of such a book will serve henceforth when the prime of life of the
accused persons have been wasted in vain already? Praise be to Model
Investigation!
To be continued. ...
Thanks to Times Now TV
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