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| by L.Annadoure
( December 9,
2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) It was alleged by Special Investigation Team
that it was the Inspector General of police, Tamil Nadu, Mr.Ragavan who had taken
possession of Chinon Camera CX from the
site immediately after the bomb
blast on the night of 21st May 1991 and it was further alleged that
one Haribabu had used that Chinon CX camera in taking the iconical 10 shots. we
have already heard the Chief investigation officer saying that the colour roll
of film was taken out from the camera , taken to a studio near by, the exposed
film was cut away, packed and sent to Chennai for developing the negative
and what is to be taken note of is the roll of film was not sent
directly to Forensic Department, Tamil Nadu.
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| Page No.142, The First Human Bomb by P.Chandra Sekharan |
The camera which
you see above is Chinon CX with which 10 shots were said to have been taken at
the site and this model was manufactured by Chinon Industries, Japan and the
industry had manufactured such model in
or about 1974 and thereafter the company had
stopped production of the above
said model. The Forensic Expert Mr.P.Chandra Sekharan would say that the
impugned camera Chinon Cx was fitted with a Super Takumar wide –angle lens (
No.3123927) made by the Asahi Optical Company, Japan with aperture-focal length
‘1.3/28’.
The Chinon
camera used to be sold fitted with the company’s own Chinon lens and especially this model camera came fitted with 55mm/1.4 lens and any other
suitable lens could also be screw mounted. As you see this Camera has not in
built electronic flash but there is hot shoe on the top of the camera so as to mount separate electronic flash. It is highly doubtful whether this
camera could have been used in taking the 10 shots when more sophisticated
models were available in the market and in use with photographers in the city
during the material point of time and the case of the prosecution was that the
alleged Photographer Haribabu had borrowed the said camera from his friend to
take shots of the events and their case was the said Haribabu was working under his master Subha
Sundaram who was said to be a well known
photographer.
Now we have to
see what the Chief of the Special Investigation Team Mr. D.R.Kartikeyan, the
Chief Investigating officer Mr.K.Ragothaman
and the Forensic Expert P.Chandrasekaran have got to say about the
Chinon Cx Camera which we see above.
The version of
Mr.Karthieyan-The Rajiv Gandhi Assasination , The investigation authored by
D.R.Karthikeyan and Radhavinod Raju
‘Haribabu
focused the Chinon camera, that he had borrowed
to cover this special event, and clicked his first picture of the
evening.’ 2nd paragraph page 15
Mr.M.Katthikeyan
in the introductory pages would make a reference as to Mr.Ragul Gandhi who having
said that he ‘wanted to know the power of the lens of Haribabu’s camera’
‘Haribabu’s
camera, capturing the last moments of Rajiv Gandhi and others at the meeting,
remained a mute witness atop its temporary owner’s body once- alive body’( page
17, 3rd paragraph)
‘Ragavan
directed the police man nearby to pick up the Chinon camera. Page 17-18
‘Among
the materials taken over by us from the State Crime Branch was the Chinon
Camera that had been picked up from the scene of crime under IG Raghavan’s
directions. The camera had been taken by the police photographer to a studio nearby to ascertain whether it contained clues. The
film being a coloured one, it could not be developed at the local studio and
the exposed portion of the film was cut and packed and passed on the police
photographer. It was not until the afternoon of May 23 that this portion of
film, containing vital evidence , was taken to TNFSL and developed late in the
evening. The first prints made from the exposed film were in black and white
and were kept sealed at the lab; there were a total of ten pictures. Yet the
next morning, a major part of the first of these ten photographs found its way
to The Hindu’s front page, thanks to a top official at TNFSL’...page 25
‘The
photograph published by The Hindu before we or the crime Branch had access to
the photographs, and even before the CBI registered the case, did create some
consternation among the investigators’ .page 25
‘We
proceeded to take possession of the camera and ten developed negatives that
formed the most important evidence.’ Page 26
‘These
ten photographers , 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;....’ page 26
‘After
The Hindu published the first photograph of Haribabu, a journalist got in touch
with us and expressed his doubts about a kurta pyjama clad man as a business
partner of another mutually known free lance photo journalist. The next day the
journalist called the photojournalist, who was supposed to be the kurta pyjama
clad man’s business partner, and inquired about the latter. The photojournalist
acknowledged that Haribabu had borrowed his Chinon camera but as to the kurta
pyjama clad man, he knew nothing. This bothered the journalist, especially
after the LTTE was speculated to be among the prime suspects in the assassination.
He knew Haribabu was a ward of the Chennai based Subha Sundaram, who was known
to have close links with the LTTE.’
‘Subha Sundaram , a well –known
photojournalist, was a strong supporter of the LTTE. It was in his studio that
LTTE master propagandist Baby Subramaniam attracted a young flock of Indian
men. Subha Sundaram had paid a brief visit to Jaffna in the first half of 1990
and met the Tiger leader and was politically well connected. Later during investigation,
the SIT unearthed the level of involvement Sundaram had with LTTE activities in
general and the Rajiv Gandhi assassination in particulars’ page 27
Obviously , the
report was referring to the photographs published on May 24 in The Hindu in
which the salwar kameez clad girl holding the sandal garland is seen flanked by
a mother and daughter. This was a scoop by The Hindu.
‘On May 20, Bhagyanathan , Arivu, Murugan,
Nalini and Haribabu met Sivarasan in Bhagyanathan’s house. Kodak film roll was
given to Haribabu for taking photographs and Sivarasan gave them further
instructions on their plan for the next day when Rajiv Gandhi was to address
the meeting at Sriperumbadur’
The version propounded by Forensic
Expert -The First Human Bomb by
P.Chandrasekaran
‘I
scrutinized the photographs and one of the photographs showed the same object
that I had noticed in the news paper. I wondered why we did not locate this
object in the scene. To check whether it was lying at the blast site when our
team reached there. I made a slow run of the video we had made before we
actually began our combing search. I could not locate this object in the video
obviously this important object was picked up by some one in the interval,
perhaps when the corpses were cleared.’ Page 49
‘When
I was examining the bodies at the morgue , one of them was identified as that
of Haribabu, a free lance photographer.
Many had reported to have seen this Haribabu taking photographs of the final
moments of Rajiv Gandhi at close quarters. The object that I had noticed and
that we failed to locate was a camera! The camera , as I had noticed from the
news paper, was trapped safely between two dead bodies, one of them identified
as that of the photographer Haribabu
himself and the other being that of a girl later identified as Kokila .
I guessed that this camera must be none other than the one with which Haribabu
was seen by many, clicking photographs until he was killed in the blast.
‘ I could n’t get any information about the
camera from the morgue either.
Discouraged but determined to somehow get hold of Haribabu’s camera. I came back to the blast
site where my colleagues were waiting with the materials collected on the
second day.’
‘When
I reached the lab, a great surprise awaited me. Watson placed before me a set
of ten photographs. He told me that the police photographer attached to the
Kancheepuram District police officer had come to our lab an hour ago and
brought with him a 35 mm exposed colour
roll film.... The police photographer wanted the film to be developed and
prints made immediately in our colour lab. He told Watson that the police
officers of the State Crime Branch wanted to see the results immediately.
Watson had entrusted the job to our forensic photographer’.
‘Removal
of the camera from the scene was gross violation of basic crime scene ethics-
and my last guess would have been that a law enforcement officer would have
been responsible!
‘My
forensic photographer developed the roll
film and found that ten frames were exposed. He made two sets of enlargements
of all the ten exposures. He returned the colour negative roll along with one
set of enlargements to the police photographer. Prudently my forensic
photographer retained the other set and gave it to Watson to be shown to me.’
‘Watson
said that Praksh Swamy from The Hindu was right there in our lounge room
waiting to meet me. His patience in waiting for me up till that late hour
rewarded him with this crucial news break. He was ecstatic as he collected the
print and rushed to his office. The Hindu faithfully carried the photograph
along with the break-through news in its issue who killed Rajiv Gandhi’ .-page
53
‘But
where was the camera? The mystery was solved the next day when my forensic
photographer met me along with his police counterpart. Vardarajan, the police
photographer was the first to find the camera lying between the dead bodies and
to take a photographic of the scene as the press photographers also followed
suit. When the bodies were removed to the morgue, the camera was picked up from
the scene by Ragavan, the inspector General of Police. He had then entrusted
the camera to the police photographer to be taken to a nearby studio to get the
film removed, developed and prints made. The local studio , having no
facilities to develop colour films, was a no –go, as the film was a colour
roll. The photographer could n’t get the film developed anywhere else in the
city since all the major photo shops had downed shutters due to the widespread
riots over the next two days. That’s why the police photographer brought the
film to my department where we had a well equipped colour laboratory’.
‘I
released to the press the photograph of Dhanu with a garland in her hand and it
was first published in the Hindu on May 24, 1991.The Hindu ‘ also published
Sivarasan’s photograph on May 29 and the other newspapers carried them on May
30’. page 170
‘One
of the useful findings of the SIT during their investigation was that the LTTE
typically records all its operations, and in this case had hired a Chennai
–based photographer and sympathizer S.Haribabu, to document Rajiv Gandhi’s
killings. But, unfortunately for LTTE and fortunately for SIT, they had not anticipated
one disastrous error. Haribabu, while photographing the sequences strayed too
close to the assassin Dhanu and died in the explosion. Haribabu was probably
not aware of the impending explosion. The ten photographs he had clicked in is Chinon
camera had survived.
.....
The camera with the loaded film ought to have been handed over to me at the
crime scene itself. But the film was removed from the camera and brought to me
on 23rd May ,1991, while the camera was delivered to me only on 30th
May 1991.’
The version of
K.Ragothaman -Story of Rajiv Gandhi Assassination by M.Ragothaman
‘Of
the press reporters and photographers who had gone to Poonthamalli, one of the
Photographers was one Thelkadi Ramamurthy who knew news of the death of Haribabu. He knew well Haribabu and his
master Subha Sundaram. Subha Sundaram had contacted Thelkadi Ramamurthy through
telephone at the police station’. page 39
‘On
informing the death of Haribabu ,
the first reaction from Subha Sundaram was he who said that let Haribabu be gone, first
the camera should be recovered.’ page 39
‘It
was first a shock to Thelkadi Ramamurthy. Subha Sundaram having continued to
speak asked Thelkadi Ramamurthy thus, ‘See,
if you could collect the camera? It is an invaluable property. It will yield millions in profit. What do you
say?’ -page 39
‘When
CBI was inquiring the press reporters and photographers who were at the site,
the Chief of Special Investigation team was examining Thelkadi Ramaurthy. The
information that was revealed by
Thelkadi Ramaurthy was about Subha Sundaram which was terrifying and shocking
one. Thelkadi Ramaurthy said that he had refused to budge in to Subha
Sundaram’s demand and he had abruptly stopped communicating with him over phone.
After examining Thelkadi Ramamurthy Chief of Special Investigation Team Mr.D.R.
Karthikeyan had directed Mr.K.Ragothaman to subject Subha Sundaram to a full
enquiry’. page 39
‘Inside
the camera which came into our hands contained only unexposed film roll only.
Its exposed frames were cut separately and sent for taking prints.’
Mere reading of the versions of the statements
of the officers of Special investigation Team and the Forensic expert, Tamil Nadu Forensic Unit
would give one to understand that it was
Inspector General of Police Mr.G.Ragavan who had directed a police Constable to
take possession of the impugned camera immediately after the bomb blast and
thus the camera was said to be in the
hands of state police who had begun their investigation soon after the blast which killed Rajiv
Gandhi and some others and CBI took up the investigation only on May 24 at
about 1.30 pm from State police and relevant papers and case properties that
were recovered at the site were handed over to CBI.
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| Page No.142, The First Human Bomb
by
P.Chandra Sekharan
|
So for the
camera was concerned, according to the Chief investigation officer K.Ragothaman
, the team had laid their hand on the camera and the unexposed roll of colour
film which was inside the camera only on 24.5.1991 at about 1.30 Pm. Quite obviously The Hindu News paper
had published the first frame starting with 0 in its issue dt. 24.5.1991 and therefore some negative colour films which
were collected from the other photographers and negatives prepared from video cassettes
sans the first frame starting with 0, should have reached the hands of Hindu News paper and that should have been what had happened in all
probability. No body was certain as to where the impugned camera and the colour
roll of film were all along and the Mr.D.R.Karthikeyan would state that black
and white photos were taken from the colour negative film which were then kept in
sealed cover. In all, it should be said that there was suspicion and doubts
hovering over the camera which was said to have been lying over the corpse of
Haribabu. It was their stand that only the exposed frames were cut at a local
studio but there could not be any means of knowing as to how many frames were
exposed in the roll and the Forensic Expert would say that roll film was given
for developing on the evening of 23rd May and these statements
appear to be untrustworthy.
Pertaining to the Chinon Camera CX, the
Forensic Expert would say that the Camera was retrieved unscathed as it was found
trapped between the corpses and the picture above shows that a camera is just
lying on the corpse. Supposing were the
photographer Haribabu to have clued his eye to the view finder and focused at the scene at time of actual explosion then
certainly the Chinon CX Camera should have borne the brunt of the explosion and
as the Forensic Expert himself had stated
that as the onward rush of gases was at a speed of 7000 miles per hour, the
effect of the blast with gases and pellets would have smashed it to pieces
and further there would not have been any
chance of survival of the colour roll of film inside the camera and here
despite all the roll of film was said to
have emerge undamaged and in all
probability the version ventured by Forensic
Expert should be farfetched; such statement was a pigment of his imagination; there
was mala fide intention on his part and the Forensic Expert could not be heard
to say that the camera was caught in between the bodies nor such a proposition
could be stomached by any one with a little knowledge of photography and use of cameras. Further
the picture shows the camera was one with out an in built electronic flash and
neither of the investigating officers nor the Forensic Expert ever did say
anything about the conspicuous absence of an in built electronic flash nor of
the absence of separate mountable electronic flash. The investigation Team and
investigation officers are bound to answer to this discrepancy or anomaly and they
must explain how the alleged Photographer Haribabu had taken photos with the
camera as such and therefore their investigation should be a tainted one. What the author of this article
come to perceive is that the impugned Camera was not at all used in taking
photos and the allegation of use of the said camera in taking those 10 photos
sequentially was unfounded and baseless and saying so should only be a misnomer.
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Page No.119, The
First Human Bomb
by P.Chandra Sekharan
|
The Special
investigation team was trying to fabricate evidence so as to present false
evidence before court so as to procure conviction for a capital offence which
were foisted against the accused persons in the case and the TADA Act had
extended all protection and cover
to their activities and it accorded all freedom to fabricate
evidence and thus they were emboldened to go to any extent and their activities
were destined to be unquestionable by any one and they had hoodwinked the
Honourable court into believing that the
photographic evidence which they had presented before the court was credible
and trust worthy. The Chief of Special investigation Team Mr.D.R.Karthikeyan had
stated that it was Sivarasan who had
given Kodak colour Film to cover the programme and it was highly farcical on is
his part to have said so and such statement was absurd, for a professional
Photographer knew pretty well what kind of film he should use in taking photos
for the occasion and the 10 shots spoken
of in unison and oft repeated and
reiterated as ones taken by Haribabu were not taken originally with Kodak film
in Chinon CX Camera.
The theory that
Haribabu having taken 10 snapshots sequentially which was propounded by the
Special Investigation Team and the Forensic Expert was a conspiracy hatched by an hierarchy of conspirators and
the Forensic Expert was a greater conspirator in the venture and even to this
day there is no knowing of what happened to the video Cassette which was taken
to New Delhi and the video
cassettes seen by the team were only edited
versions. The Special Investigation Team knew absolutely well that the Video
cassette which was with the Chief of Intelligence Bureau contained vital
information and in order to shied some one else its availability was suppressed
from being utilized for effective
investigation and the Chief of Investigation Team , the Chief of
investigating officer and the Chief of erstwhile Intelligence Bureau were
equally guilty of suppression of evidence which were to have been produced in
the course of investigation then such an evidence would have tilted the trend
of the prosecution case and in actuality
they should all be prosecuted for suppression of evidence and for producing
false evidence before court of law and we will continue with our exposition of
the Kodak Colour Film which was said to have been given to Haribabu and the
filmstrip which was alleged to have contained 10 shots wherein lies the falsity
of entire prosecution case.
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