Rajiv Gandhi's Assassination Part 04

This series of blogs explains various dimensions of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. Though LTTE carried out the assassination, they were just hitmen contracted by someone very powerful. 

The real conspirators, planners and financiers were different people. They were hiding behind layers of curtains and virtually untraceable. After assassination, they executed a perfect plan to cover their tracks. Hence they cannot be traced but one can make a logical conclusion about the main kingpin. 

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Part 4 ...

In the last update, we saw how the conspiracy was hatched to kill Rajiv Gandhi and how
SIT confirmed that Rajiv’s assassination was a work of LTTE.

There is no doubt LTTE was responsible for the assassination but does it mean they were
solely responsible? How about the idea that LTTE was just used as a paid hit men but
conspirators were someone else?

Think it differently for a moment, what benefit LTTE would have got by killing Rajiv? Politically
it was more suicidal because, thereafter, not only Sri Lankan government but Indian
government also hunted Prabhakaran. Indian government destroyed LTTE sympathizers in
India and ruined their support. This clearly shows, killing Rajiv was not a good action for LTTE.

But still they did it, which means they were given an assurance of no retribution from the
Indian government.

AFTER THE ASSASSINATION…..

Now let's examine what happened after the assassination.

After Rajiv was killed, the team went back to the safe house in Chennai and stayed for
couple of days. But they knew, it was not safe to stay there for a long time. First they
tried getting a boat to go back to Sri Lanka but Indian Navy and Coast Guard was very
vigilant and it was impossible to breakthrough. Hence they decided to go to some
different places and stay there till matter cooled down.

Nalini and Shanmugam were in relationship and they took off on their own and rest of
the LTTE team used the empty fuel tanker truck of a LTTE sympathizer to get out of
Chennai.

Investigating SIT team had photographs of the killer team from Haribabu’s camera but
they were struggling to get identification of the other team members. This is because,
all of them except Nalini were from Sri Lanka and CBI and IB had no intel on them
Hence they decided to first follow Nalini. Nalini and Shanmugam were nabbed in
Tirupati after about a month where they got married in the temple. 

Nalini and Shanmugam started spilling the beans after the arrest. They could give
names and identities of the LTTE killer team but beyond that they could not give a
lot of intel on who made the plan, who was involved from Sri Lanka, how Dhanu
was selected and trained etc. Hence SIT team was running blank.

PLOT TO KILL LTTE KILLER TEAM

SIT was sure that the Sivrasan and other LTTE killer team members would not leave
South India for the reason of getting a safe cover. Hence they alerted the state police
of all the four Southern states. In turn, the Southern states started a huge intel network
to trace LTTE killer team.

In the month of August 1991, Bangalore police got a tip that some suspected activities
are seen in a house in Konanakunte, outskirts of Bangalore city. Bangalore Police
confirmed the tip, informed SIT team and made plans to capture LTTE killer team
alive by disguising them as milkman.

As they were making the plans, they kept a secret vigil on the suspect’s house. It was
very important to keep it secret, otherwise the LTTE killer team would have escaped or
killed themselves. But at the same time Home Ministry from New Delhi ordered
Bangalore police to stop the operation as Home Ministry wanted to send commandos
from Delhi.

Airlifting commandos from Delhi and bringing them to Bangalore took almost 24 hours.
During that time, police activities increased near the suspect’s house and they spotted
police. This immediately started gun fight for hours and wounded five policeman. As
the darkness fell, the operation became still more difficult for the police because the
LTTE killer team was firing from the house without light.

The commandos from Delhi finally arrived next day early morning. By then, the firing
had gone down and commandos should have taken this opportunity to capture the
LTTE killer team alive. But they made no such attempt and instead used heavy
weaponry. They used mortar firing till they were convinced that after such a heavy
firing, no one in the house would be alive. This shows, they had clear orders from
the Delhi to kill everyone and not to capture them. 

The LTTE mastermind, Sivrasan was close to LTTE chief Prabhakaran and he
could have given lot of vital information to SIT team, if was captured alive. Hence
someone in Delhi took the decision to kill all of them 

This is typical action to cover up in the political assassination.

It did not end there…

LTTE chief Prabhakaran was the main person who ordered Rajiv’s assassination. He
knew too much and would have been dangerous, if caught alive. Later after few years,
Prabhakaran had expressed his regrets for killing Rajiv Gandhi and realized that he
was used. But he was a big danger to the real conspirators. Hence eliminating him
too was very important.

The real conspirators got this chance in June 2009. Sri Lankan army launched a final

assault on LTTE in May 2009. It was a very brutal military operation in which Tamilians

were killed mercilessly. Prabhakaran lost all his bases, all his trusted lieutenants were

killed and he started running in jungles with his family to save his life. Soon he realized,

he cannot escape the certain death if he stayed there any more. Hence he thought of

escaping the island and go to Norway. But escaping through sea was not easy

because Indian Navy had blocked all sea routes to fail his escape attempts. 

This is very important to note. WHY UPA GOVERNMENT SHOULD SEND INDIAN

NAVY TO SRI LANKA, SO AS TO BLOCK PRABHAKARAN’S ESCAPE? It was

Sri Lanka's internal matter and they should have handled it on their own.

One may argue that Gandhi family might have thought of taking a revenge of Rajiv’s

killing and that is why they might have ordered Indian Navy to block the island. This

argument looks real absurd…. Why India should deploy its Navy in a foreign land to

stop one person from escaping? 

Was it because of vengeance that Gandhi family deployed Indian Navy or was it out of

fear that if Prabhakaran escaped the island and reached a different country, then he

might open his mouth and tell the whole truth about Rajiv’s assassination?

It is rumored that Prabhakaran finally made contact with someone very high in Delhi

and asked a route to escape. This Delhi person asked him to come out of the jungle

and reach a particular point on the seashore. He assured Prabhakaran that he would

have a boat waiting for him to carry him out.

Prabhakaran came out of the hiding and reached the designated point. To his surprise,

there was no boat waiting but Sri Lankan soldiers waiting for him. He was captured

alive and then he was assassinated at point blank range.

Again here, we see the same pattern….it was an OPERATION TO KILL.

More in next part.....

Rajiv Gandhi's Assassination Part 03

This series of blogs explains various dimensions of Rajiv Gandhi's 

assassination. Though LTTE carried out the assassination, they were just hitmen contracted by someone very powerful. 

The real conspirators, planners and financiers were different people. 

They were hiding behind layers of curtains and virtually untraceable. 

After assassination, they executed a perfect plan to cover their tracks. 

Hence they cannot be traced but one can make a logical conclusion 

about the main kingpin. 

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Part 3

In the last part we saw how no congress leader was not even injured in the blast.
It is really very unexplainable that all congress leaders were far away from Rajiv,
when the blast occurred. 

Just like how Karunanidhi was tipped by governor Bhishma Marayan Singh, similarly
does it mean, TN congress leaders too were somehow warned about the assassination
plot in advance? 

Now, let us see some major factors that led to his killing.

1. How Rajiv’s security was deliberately weakened before he was killed?

Rajiv had escaped couple of attempts on his life earlier when he was PM.

Hence his security was tightened to the maximum level. As a result he was

not allowed to go near the public and mix with them. He was completely isolated

from the public during 1989 general election campaign.

After Rajiv lost 1989 elections, his advisors (this means, someone from his close

friends and family members) advised him that one of the major reasons why he

lost the election was his physical distance from the masses. His tight security did

not allow him to mix with people, shake hands with him, allow people to touch

him, give him gifts, garland him etc. Indian public needs this closeness with their

leader to feel the bonding. But if this did not happen and people lost the connection. 

Rajiv liked this suggestion and asked his security to be relaxed during 1991 campaign.

This was certainly against the security norms for the VVIP but he was adamant. As a

result, common people were allowed to go close to him and that is how Dhanu, the

human bomb was able to get close to Rajiv.

2.   Let us briefly talk about the the killer team that came from Sri Lanka and
how they operated. 
Sivrasan was the team leader who was very close to LTTE Chief Prabhakaran.
He had lost an eye in some operation and was wearing a glass ball as a fake eye.
Hence he was also called a “One Eye Jackal”.

He, Dhanu and other team members reached Chennai in February 1991. This was
the same time when LTTE emissaries visited Rajiv in his Delhi’s house and gave
him false assurance that Rajiv had no threat from LTTE. While LTTE was giving
this assurance, LTTE had landed a team to kill Rajiv!!!

Prior to this, LTTE had made a surveillance of possible places where Rajiv can be
assassinated. They ideally wanted him to kill in TN where LTTE had support, escape
route and better change to kill him. But getting Rajiv to TN was difficult because his
security would have not allowed him to go to TN. Hence they thought of killing Rajiv
in Delhi itself. But they dropped that idea because logistically it was impossible for the
non Hindi speaking Sri Lankan Tamilians to get safe house, transportation etc. in Delhi. 
Hence they decided to kill him in TN. But for that they had to first arrange Rajiv's visit
to TN. This task was executed by Rajiv's inner circle and they lured him to go to Sri
Perambuddur at the last moment. This how Sri Perambuddur meeting was scheduled
at the last minute. 

Here are some timelines to understand. LTTE team had landed in February 1991.
They had built the bomb in April 1991 and made a Dry Run Test in the April 1991.
They used V. P. Singh’s Chennai meeting in April 1991 for the dry run test. Dhanu
went to this meeting, wearing exact same suicide belt and did exact same action of
bending down to touch V. P. Singh’s feet  and pressed the detonator switch. It
worked but no harm was done because there was no explosive. 

Hence it is not that LTTE planned the plot after Rajiv's visit to Sri Perambuddur

was announced. It would have been virtually impossible for LTTE to plan the whole

operation just within 15 days. LTTE was working on the plan since February 1991,

they were ready by April 1991 and then waited for Rajiv to visit TN. His inner

circle people PACKED him and SENT him to Sri Perambuddur on 21st May 1991.

The reason I have explained above points to emphasize that Rajiv’s visit to Sri
Perambuddur on 21st May 1991 was no COINCIDENCE. It was not like Rajiv
casually went there and got killed by fluke. It was a full proof plan to kill Rajiv
on that night in TN.

3. Let’s understand the plot at a high level.
First his security cover was purposely relaxed so that common people can get
very close to Rajiv.

Then he was FOOLED by the sweet talks of LTTE and was CONVINCED to go
to Sri Perambuddur by his close inner circle. In other words, he was PLANTED
to go to Sri Perambuddur by his close circle people.

The Security arrangements for checking the visitors was laxed (Purposely?) and
that is how Human bomb Dhanu and kingpin Sivrasan could pass through the
metal detectors even though they were carrying bomb and weapons.

The LTTE killer team used the local congress leader Ms. Kannan who was close
associate of Congress party's candidate Ms Margatham Chandrashekhar and a
close family friend of Rajiv Gandhi to sneak in Dhanu inside the VVIP area. Now it
cannot be established whether Ms. Margatham Chandrashekhar was involved in
this plot or not because she was never probed and she died in 2001.

The security arrangement for Rajiv at the meeting venue was kept very
weak, ….again was it deliberate?….might be! The common people were allowed
to enter the red carpet area from where Rajiv was supposed to walk. This is totally
against the security norms. 

If you see this sequence then it becomes clear that, it was not a coincidence. It was a well
planned operation.

4. Let's examine sequence of events as how Rajiv was killed at the meeting venue?

• Rajiv was late for the meeting and arrived around 10.25 PM IST time.
• As soon as he got down from the car, the fire crackers were busted, which is normal in India.
• He was immediately surrounded by the congress leaders like Mr. G. K. Moopnar, Ms. Jayanti Natarajan, Ms. Margatham chandrashekhar and others. 
• After few minutes of casual talks, Rajiv starts walking on the red carpet area to go to the stage. Common people who had gathered to listen to his speech were waiting on both the sides of the red carpet area but they kept behind the barricades. 
• Few hundred people were allowed to stand on the red carpet area to garland Rajiv. Rajiv was waiting near these people on the red carpet area, shake hands with them, accept garland and move forward slowly.
• Dhanu was one amongst the lot waiting on the red carpet. She sneaked inside the red carpet area along with Ms. Kannan. Dhanu was holding a dry sandalwood garland to give it to Rajiv. Sivrasan, Nalini and others from the LTTE team were close to Dhanu but inside the barricade. 
• Rajiv reached near Ms. Kannan and she asked her little daughter to recite a poem that she had written on Rajiv. Hence Rajiv waited there for few minutes. During this few moments, Dhanu was trying to go near Rajiv but a lady police constable was holding her back. Rajiv saw Dhanu's struggle and signalled the lady constable to allow her to come near him.
• Dhanu came close to Rajiv and gave him the garland and bent down to touch his feet. At that same moment, she pressed the detonator switch and the bomb went off. There was a big bang and then there was a deafening silence. The people outside the impact area first thought some big firecracker went off but after few moments they heard the cries and realized there was a bomb explosion.   
•  Public started running away from the scene. Mr. G. K. Moopanar and Ms. Jayanti Natarajan started looking for Rajiv Gandhi near explosion site but he could not be found. After few minutes, Mr. G. K. Moopnar saw Rajiv laying down on the floor with his face down. He turned Rajiv around and realized Rajiv was dead. His face was completely dismembered because he took the full brunt of the explosion. He could be identified just with his Lotto shoes.
• Sivrasan, Nalini and other members of the LTTE quietly left the scene, took a auto rikshwa and went back to Chennai. 

5.    Let’s try to identify these questions…

            First let’s ask WHO?

Who within the “Close Advisers”, advised Rajiv to weaken his security

Who were the “Close Advisers” who arranged two meetings with LTTE emissaries
that falsely assured Rajiv that he had no threat from LTTE?

Who were the “Close Advisers” who persuaded Rajiv to visit Tamil Nadu though
intelligence agencies had clearly warned him against?

Who arranged Rajiv’s meeting at Sri Perambuddur with just two weeks of notice?
Who made the public meeting site arrangement, in such way that Rajiv’s motorcade
would stop 700 feet away from the stage and which would make him walk through
the aisle, thereby exposing him to the human bomb? As per the normal protocol, the
motorcade is stopped next to the stage and no one is allowed in that area.

Who allowed the LTTE killers to enter inside the aisle with deadly explosives
and weapons? This was a clear breach of security procedure for the VVIP
Person like Rajiv.

6. How investigation understood it was the work of LTTE?

The SIT Investigation team first identified all the dead bodies. They could identify
all except one lady whose torso was torn in two pieces. It has some pieces of thick
cloth attached with her body, which was certainly not part of her clothing. They found
similar pieces of cloth at the crime site. The forensic testing of the body parts of that
lady and the cloth pieces confirmed, the cloth pieces was a part of a waist belt that
contained plastic explosive that killed Rajiv.

LTTE had hired a local photographer named Haribabu. His job was to take photos
of the actual bombing so that Sivraasan and his team can send it to Prabhakaran
in Sri Lanka. Haribabu died in the bomb blast but his camera survived the blast.
Police developed the film and recovered the photographs that Haribabu had taken.
Those photos  showed Sivrasan, Dhanu, Nalini, Kannan and her daughter.

Police investigated Haribabu’s details and soon realized it was a work of LTTE’s
human bomb. Such human bombings were common in Sri Lanka but this was the
first time it was used in India. 

The real story of conspiracy starts from here. The government agencies and the
politicians systematically used all the methods to cover up the tracks so that real
conspirators cannot be identified.

These details will be given in the next writeup….

Rajiv Gandhi's Assassination Part 02

This series of blogs explains various dimensions of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. Though LTTE carried out the assassination, they were just hitmen contracted by someone very powerful. 

The real conspirators, planners and financiers were different people. They were hiding behind layers of curtains and virtually untraceable. After assassination, they executed a perfect plan to cover their tracks. Hence they cannot be traced but one can make a logical conclusion about the main kingpin. 

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Part 2….

In the last part we talked about Karunanidhi’s disposition before Verma commission. 

4) Let’s understand how Rajiv’s meeting was arranged in Sri Perambuddur on that fateful day. 

The election campaigning was going on and Rajiv was traveling all over India. All his meetings were centrally planned and coordinated by the Congress party headquarters in Delhi. 

The meeting at Sri Perambuddur was not initially planned by the party or scheduled by them. The original plan for 21st May 1991 was, to go to Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad and return to Delhi. Then how his meeting at Sri Perambuddur was finalized?

One old lady named Margatham Chandrashekhar was contesting from Sri Perambuddur. She was an old timer in congress party, a Gandhi family acquaintance and a confidante of Indira Gandhi. Rajiv used to call her Aunty! This lady met Rajiv and pressed him to have a meeting in her constituency. Rajiv agreed for a meeting in her constituency. 

But no one in congress party’s Delhi office or TN congress party had any clue of such a meeting being scheduled. They came to know only 7 days before the meeting!  

This was a serious breach of security because IB and RAW had warned Rajiv Gandhi to stay away from Tamil Nadu state during the election campaigning. They had analyzed a threat perception of 90% if Rajiv visited TN. This threat was known to everyone in the congress party.

But then, why no one from Rajiv’s advisers told him not to go to TN, in view of impending serious threat to his life? Rajiv himself might have overlooked the threat because he was fooled by the LTTE meetings earlier, but was it not the duty of others to warn him?

Earlier the plan was to make a night halt in a bungalow at Sri Parambuddur, but IB objected to this plan because the bungalow was in a remote place and they could not secure it. Hence the plan was changed. Rajiv was then going to Raj Bhavan in Chennai  for night halt. 

Later it was revealed that, the backup plan was to kill Rajiv in this bungalow in Sri Perambuddur at night, if Dhanu failed to kill him in the meeting. The plan was full proof, ensuring Rajiv would not go back alive. 

5) let’s see how the security plan at the meeting venue was…

The human bomber Dhanu, kingpin Sivrasan, Nalini and others entered the meeting venue well before the time. The police had setup metal detectors for the entry and were checking every person entering. Then how come Dhanu could enter with the bomb?

Agreed, she was carrying plastic bomb which was undetectable in those days but the wires, detonators and the batteries should have been detected. They are metals….

How she was allowed to enter with the explosives?

The kingpin Sivrasan, who had dressed like a journalist, was carrying a German automatic revolver. 

How these two could enter the venue with deadly weapons?

6) The human bomb Dhanu and Naline were allowed to enter the restricted area with the recommendation of Congress party worker named Kannan. This congress worker was close supporter of congress candidate Margathem Chandrashekhar. 

Unfortunately Kannan did not survive to explain why she recommended Dhanu to enter restricted area. Who told her to take Dhanu inside the security barricade?

There was a big lapse of security in allowing Dhanu and her team to enter the restricted area. This was never probed. 

7) As per the security norms, VVIP are never parades within the crowds. Their motorcade stops near the podium, from there they directly go to the meeting venue, get down and drive the car outside the meeting venue. They are never exposed within the public. 

But at Sri Perambuddur this did not happen. Rajiv’s car stopped outside the area where all public was waiting for him. He was thus forced to walk through the crowds to reach the podium. 

As per the security norm, no one is allowed to enter the red carpet area on which VVIP is walking. Then how come Dhanu and few others were allowed to stand in that area? The public was barricaded from entering red carpet area but then how come Dhanu was allowed to go beyond barricade? Who gave them the permission?

Who decided that Rajiv should walk within the crowd by breaching the security procedure?

8) This is shocking…..

When Rajiv reached the meeting venue and got down from the car, he was surrounded by the local TN congress leaders like G. K. Moopnar, Jayanti Natarajan, Margatham Chandrashekhar and others. 

All of them were trying to go close to Rajiv to show their closeness. They all started walking on the red carpet with Rajiv. 

But surprisingly, just few minutes later, when the blast occurred, none of these leaders were killed or injured. How that is possible? The 18 people who were killed were all civilians and police people. None of local congress leaders or congress worker had even had a scratch….

Is it not strange? How come no one was injured from Congress Party?

When Verma commission asked this question, Moopnar said, he had gone forward to see everything on the stage was set correctly. Jayanti Natarajan said, while she was walking with Rajiv on the red carpet, Rajiv told her to go back to the car and take care of the foreign journalists who were traveling with him. And so on…..everyone gave a lame excuse.

But it is strange that no congress leader was harmed in that bomb blast….?

More details in the next update…

Till then take care

Rajiv Gandhi's Assassination Part 01

This series of blogs explains various dimensions of Rajiv Gandhi's 

assassination. Though LTTE carried out the assassination, they were 

just hitmen contracted by someone very powerful. 

The real conspirators, planners and financiers were different people. 

They were hiding behind layers of curtains and virtually untraceable. 

After assassination, they executed a perfect plan to cover their tracks. 

Hence they cannot be traced but one can make a logical conclusion 

about the main kingpin. 

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Part 1.....

Political world and media are buzzing with the supporting and opposing news of Rajiv
Gandhi’s death.Some claim he died as a martyr, whereas some say he died because
of his inexperience in handling LTTE problem. 

My analysis is, both these claims are 100% false. Both the sides have not taken
trouble to investigate the details of Rajiv’s death. 

Rajiv’s death was a very well planned and funded POLITICAL ASSASSINATION. It was planned by someone very close to him for the obvious
political advantage. They had money and power to hide their tracks and influence the
police investigation. 

Remember, political assassinations are always planned for obvious political benefits.
Sometimes the real beneficiary does not surface immediately because he/she has a
fear that people will obviously suspect that person. Hence real beneficiary may emerge
after some time. Remember this law.....

You may ask why am I saying Rajiv’s assassination was not just an assassination by
the crack headed LTTE but was a deep rooted conspiracy? Here are the pointers.....

1) All the intelligence agencies in India had warned Rajiv that he had serious and
creditable threat from LTTE hence he should not visit TN during election campaign
in 1991. But then why did he go toSri Perambuddur on 21st May 1991?

2) This is shocking.... in February and March 1991; I.e. just two months before his
assassination, LTTE emissaries visited Rajiv’s residence in Delhi and had long
discussions. 

Rajiv had known threat from LTTE then how come two meetings happened? Who
arranged them? After losing the power in 1989, Rajiv had stopped taking advise
from his political advisors. He relied more on his close family and friends for
advise, which means someone in this circle advised him for having these meetings
and also arranged them.

The question is, who was that person? 

It appears that in those two meetings, LTTE accepted the fact that Rajiv would
become PM again and assured him of cordial relations with his government. LTTE
was able to convince Rajiv that they were ready to forget the past and want to start
a new beginning. They assured him of having no threat from LTTE. 

This of course was to fool Rajiv and lure him to visit TN during the election. 

Why Rajiv’s advisors did not warn him for such a possibility and stopped him from
going to TN?

3) DMK leader Karunanidhi had planned a meeting on the same night at 8.00pm
in Chennai. He cancelled that meeting at around 6.00pm same day. 

The Verma commission, inquiring Rajiv’s assassination asked Karunanidhi as why
he cancelled the meeting at the last moment?

Karunanidhi replied, he got a call from then TN governor Bhisma Narayan Singh
asking him to cancel the meeting. It seems, TN governor told Karunanidhi that
something big was going to happen that night and did not want more trouble. 

This is recorded in the Verma commission’s report, which government has never
released. Verma commission could not cross verify this claim because by then
governor Bhishma Narayan Singh was dead. 

The question is, if this is true then how come Bhishma Narayan Singh knew about
what was going to happen in Sri Perambuddur that night?

More such points will be presented in the next part.....