by Sachi Sri Kantha, Sept. 4, 2014
[Rajiv Gandhi Assassination: Secrets and Hidden Truths] by S. Doraisamy, Vikatan Pirasuram 806, Chennai, Dec. 2013, 229 pp, 115 Indian rupees. [in Tamil]
A derisive Tamil idiom used by Jaffna elders is ‘Suttri suttri suppanra kollaikulle’ [i.e., circling around Suppan’s backyard]. It refers to negative progress of events with time.
A full 15 years had passed since the Supreme Court verdict on the Rajiv Gandhi assassination trial was delivered on May 11, 1999. Books published about that assassination trial until now, can be re-phrased using this Tamil idiom, as ‘circling around CBI’s backyard’. CBI refers to the, Central Bureau of Investigation, the notorious Indian police agency. Now, some new light is shed by C. Doraisamy, one of the defense lawyers, who looked after the interest of 26 accused in the Rajiv Assassination trial. He was successful in gaining acquittal of 19 of the accused at the Supreme Court hearings. As such, compared to the two CBI-linked personnel who had previously published books (D.R. Kaarthikeyan and K. Ragothaman) on the same trial, Dorisamy achieved a higher success. Thus, his angle in this case is of interest to many Tamils and non-Tamils.
This is the 7th book, I have in my collection on the Rajiv Assassination trial. All the previous books are listed chronologically at the end of the review. Among the authors of previous six books were, one was a journalist (Rajeev Sharma), one was a Harvard-educated loudmouth politician (Subramanian Swamy), one was a social activist (Ramesh Dalal), one was a forensic scientist (Pakkirisamy Chandrasekharan), two were police officials (D.R. Kaarthikeyan and K. Ragothaman). The last three names mentioned were involved directly with the Rajiv assassination trial. As such, Doraisamy was the fourth author who was also involved directly in the same trial. But, he was the first lawyer to author a book on this case. As such, his views are distinctly different from that of other previous authors.
What was impressive to me, was Doraisamy’s listing of the prosecution witnesses and specific details relating to each of the witnesses, and how CBI folks had intimidated these witnesses to present their ‘version’ of the story. In fact, none of the previous six authors had bothered to provide this listing of 288 prosecution witnesses. In December 2001, as part of my Pirabhakaran Phenomenon series (part 26), I compiled a list of 144 prosecution witnesses, based on the Supreme Court judgments of Justice Wadwa and Justice Thomas. This was published in my Pirabhakaran Phenomenon (2005) book as well. For reference, I provide my listing below.
“When the Rajiv Gandhi assassination trial began, not much detail was known to the public about the prosecution witnesses. As one who was interested in the forensic science angle of the assassination, I had to wait till 1999 to find out the medical personnel who conducted the postmortem examinations of the victims. It was reported in the Indian news media that a total of 288 prosecution witnesses were presented. Among these, only 144 receive citation in the judgments delivered by Justice Wadhwa and Justice Thomas. From the Supreme Court verdicts delivered by Justices D.P.Wadhwa and K.T.Thomas on May 11, 1999, I compiled the names and annotations of these 144 prosecution witnesses. Justice Quadri did not cite a single witness in his brief judgment.
I’m not sure that until now, whether anyone else had taken the trouble to compile this detailed list, though I felt that, considering the ‘secrecy component’ attached to this assassination trail during its ‘Designation Court phase in Chennai’, it was worth an effort. I provide below the list of prosecution witnesses I had compiled. The abbreviation PW stands for ‘prosecution witness’. The list is in increasing numeral order. Missing numbers denote that those witnesses did not receive any citation in the judgement.
PW-18 C.S. Ganesh, Music Director
PW-19 D. Lakshmi Albert, Congress Party member & eyewitness on May 21, 1991
PW-20 Dr. Ramadevi, Congress Party member & eyewitness on May 21, 1991
PW-22 Sathyamoorthy, painter
PW-23 Bharathi, nurse & sister of Bhagyanathan (20th accused)
PW-27 Shanmugam, Congress Party member
PW-29 Maragatham Chandrasekhar, Congress Party MP for Sriperumpudur
PW-32 Anusuya, Sub Inspector of Police, Security, on duty at the Sriperumbudur meeting venue on May 21, 1991
PW-34 Sundararajan Murali [Murari]
PW-35 Subramaniyan
PW-52 V.Thiagarajan, Superintendent of Police, CBI
PW-54 T. Soundara Pandian, worker at Ebenezer Stores, and employee of M.Utham Singh (PW-56)
PW-56 M. Utham Singh, property agent and proprietor of Ebenezer Stores
PW-57 K. Thiagarajan
PW-58 S. Kalyan Krishnan, owner of Easwari Lodge
PW-59 S. Raghu, of Studio Memory Makers, St.Thomas Mount, Madras
PW-60 V. Kantha Raja @ Chokan, house owner and LTTE sympathizer
PW-61 T. Panneer Selvam, Kavitha Driving School
PW-62 P. Thirumathi Vimala, teacher
PW-63 K. Kottammal, employee of Tamil Nadu State Electricity Board & owner of No.153, Muthamil Nagar, Kodungaiyur, Madras.
PW-65 Mridula, a teacher & wife of Ranganath (26th accused)
PW-67 L.D.N.J.Wijesinghe, Senior Superintendent of Police, Sri Lanka, & interceptor of LTTE wireless transmissions
PW-70 Sowmya Narayanan, staff member of Telecom Department
PW-71 M.Janarthanam
PW-72 T.Ramamurthy, journalist
PW-73 Devasena Raj, colleague of Padma (21st accused)
PW-74 Meena, wife of T.Ramamurthy (PW-72)
PW-75 N.Vasantha Kumar, artist who compiled the two volumes of ‘Satanic Forces’ for LTTE
PW-77 Sankaran alias Gnani, journalist
PW-78 T.P.Sitther, wireless operator, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India
PW-81 Manivannan, videographer who made the tape of May 8, 1991 meeting addressed by V.P.Singh
PW-82 J.Duraisamy Naidu, owner of No.12, Eveready Colony, Kodungaiyur, Madras
PW-84 S.Mani, wireless decoder
PW-85 D.J.Swaminathan, neighbor of Jayakumar (10th accused) at Kodungaiyur
PW-86 M.Mariappan, houseworker of Shanmugham (diseased accused), Kodiakkarai
PW-88 Delip Chordia, dealer at International Tyre Service, Mount Road, Madras
PW-90 Rani, neighbor of Nalini (1st accused)
PW-91 N.Moideen, salesman at Hindustan Training Co., Royapettah High Road, Madras
PW-93 I.Suyambu, news correspondent & eyewitness of May 8, 1991 meeting addressed by V.P.Singh
PW-94 A.K.Anbalagan, salesman at Poompuhar Handicrafts [Tamil Nadu Govt. Sales Outlet], Madras
PW-95 R.Ravichandran, salesman at a showroom
PW-96 N.Sujaya Narayan, colleague of Nalini at Anabond Silicons Pvt.Ltd., Madras
PW-97 N.Chokkanathan, a distant relative of Bhaskaran (14th Accused)
PW-98 Hashmuth S.Setal, owner of Barathi Cycle Company
PW-99 Esylen Mantel, of Plot No.14, Eveready Colony, Kodungaiyur.
PW-100 A.Ravindra Reddy, Manager, Komala Vilas Lodge
PW-102 P.Veerappan, a travel agent for passports & renewal of old passports & visas
PW-104 S.Vaidyanathan, a clerk at Sriram Travels
PW-106 Y.R.Nagarajan, receptionist at Golden Lodge, Jaipur
PW-107 Ramasamy, car driver
PW-108 S.Santhana Krishnan, a friend of Hari Babu (deceased accused)
PW-109 Jayakumari, a Sri Lankan national who arrived in India in 1986 through ‘proper channel’
PW-111 Vijayendran, cinema actor
PW-114 C.Vamadevan, a Sri Lankan travel agent
PW-115 R.Ravi Srinivasan, a friend of Nalini (1st Accused)
PW-116 M.Girija Vallabhan
PW-117 R.Shankar, proprietor of Sriram Travels
PW-120 V.T.Sundaramani, father of Hari Babu (deceased accused)
PW-121 Dr.Cecelia Cyril, medical officer who conducted postmortem of victims and examined the injured
PW-124 Dr.M.N.Damodaran, medical officer who conducted postmortem of victims and examined the injured
PW-127 Dr.Jishnu Mohan, medical officer who conducted postmortem of victims and examined the injured
PW-128 Arulmani
PW-129 Dr.N.Ramasamy, medical officer who conducted postmortem of victims and examined the injured
PW-130 Dr.B.Santhakumar, medical officer who conducted postmortem of victims and examined the injured
PW-132 Sasikala, teacher
PW-133 Karpagam, relative of Suseendran (17th Accused) and wife of D.Shanmugasundaram (PW-208)
PW-134 Dr.Veerapandian, medical officer who conducted postmortem of victims and examined the injured
PW-146 Dr.T.S.Koshy, medical officer who conducted postmortem of victims and examined the injured
PW-147 Dr.Amrit Patnaik, medical officer who conducted the postmortem on the dead body of suicide assassin Dhanu
PW-149 Latha
PW-150 Dr.Raja Venkatesh, medical officer who conducted postmortem of victims and examined the injured
PW-151 K.Ravi Shankar, photo studio owner (owner of Hari Babu’s Chinon camera)
PW-153 V.P.Raghunathan, manager of Union Motors, Salem
PW-155 Dr.Kanagaraj, medical officer who conducted postmortem of victims and examined the injured
PW-157 Lt.Col. Manik Sabharwal, bomb expert
PW-162 Dr.A.Srinivasan, medical officer who conducted postmortem of victims and examined the injured
PW-163 Dr.E.V.Yuvaraj, medical officer who conducted postmortem of victims and examined the injured
PW-165 Dr.Ponnusamy, medical officer who conducted postmortem of victims and examined the injured
PW-166 Dr.Poongothai, medical officer who conducted postmortem of victims and examined the injured
PW-168 S.V.Krishnan, Sundaram Finance Ltd.
PW-169 Dr.Saraswathi, medical officer who conducted postmortem of victims and examined the injured
PW-171 S.Sundari, girlfriend of Hari Babu (deceased accused)
PW-172 P.V.Francis, Commander in Indian Navy
PW-178 A.Nageswara Rao, house owner of No.13, Park Avenue, Velan Nagar Extn., Alwarthirunagar, Madras
W-179 M.Gunathilal Soni, manager of retail textile shop ‘Queen Corner’, Puruswakkom, where a chooridar (orange and green color) was sold on May 11, 1991
PW-182 Dr.Ramesh Kumar, medical officer who conducted postmortem of victims and examined the injured
PW-183 K.Varadarajan, auto-rickshaw driver at Thiruvallur
PW-185 P.G.Abeykoon Bandara, Deputy Controller, Dept.of Immigration and Emigration, Sri Lanka
PW-186 Brigadier Vivek Sapatnekar, IPKF Operations, Sri Lanka
PW-187 P.S.Padmanaban, a student of Madras Institute of Engineering Technology
PW-189 Gajalakshmi
PW-194 Dr.R.Kuppusamy
PW-195 R.Nagarajan, Congress Party member in Thiruvallur
PW-196 Ramkumar, partner of Krishna Hotel, New Delhi
PW-197 Dr.Claud Fernandez, dentist whose clinic was visited by Murugan (3rd accused) and Robert Payas (9th accused)
PW-198 P.Ramalingam, brother in law of Hari Babu (deceased accused) and son in law of Sundaramani (PW-120)
PW-199 V.Kannan
PW-200 S.Meera
PW-203 S.Chinnamani, a salesman at Metro Square, Pondy Bazaar, Madras
PW-205 A.Parimalam, elder sister of Hari Babu (deceased accused)
PW-206 Lokamatha, aunt of Ravichandran (16th Accused)
PW-208 Shanmugham Sundaram, husband of Karpagam (PW-133)
PW-210 M.Sankari, house owner and sister of Muthuraja (an LTTE activist)
PW-211 K.Jagannathan
PW-213 K.Periasami, a Dravida Kazhagam activist
PW-214 M.Chandra, a maid in the neighborhood of Kalyani Nursing Home
PW-215 Chamundeeswari, a resident of Sriperumpudur
PW-217 unnamed husband of PW-206
PW-218 E.Aanjanappa, owner of house in Puttan Halli
PW-222 K.N.Mohan, car mechanic & owner of motor garage, Bangalore
PW-223 R.Rajan
PW-226 R.Janaki
PW-227 K.Premkumar, a friend of Ranganath (26th accused)
PW-229 R.Jayashankar
PW-230 R.Selvaraj, driver of tanker lorry on June 27, 1991, from Mettur to Madras
PW-231 V.Radhakrishnan, Customs Dept, State Government (Tamil Nadu) & a friend of Arivu (18th accused)
PW-232 S.Syed Ibrahim, insurance surveyor
PW-233 K.Bharathi, nurse
PW-234 Mangaleswaran, in charge of Rameshwaram refugee camp
PW-235 Rose D.Nayagam, in charge of Tuticorin refugee camp
PW-236 R.D.Kalia, Police Inspector
PW-239 P.P.S.Dhillon, Flight Commander of the Helicopter Unit, Port Blair
PW-242 Kasi Anandhan, member of the Central Committee of LTTE
PW-243 Dr.L.Thirunavukkarasu, medical officer who conducted postmortem on the deceased accused, who committed suicide
PW-244 Dr.S.Rajendran, medical officer who conducted postmortem on the deceased accused, who committed suicide
PW-245 S.Vasudevan, cashier at petrol pump
PW-246 Dr.S.Maghivanan, medical officer who conducted postmortem on the deceased accused, who committed suicide
PW-247 Dr.T.Sankughavel Samy, medical officer who conducted postmortem on the deceased accused, who committed suicide
PW-252 Dr.G.J.Srinivasan, Assistant Director, Tamil Nadu Forensic Science Laboratory, Madras, and owner of No.26, Sabari Nagar Extn., Porur, Madras
PW-254 Mohanraj, wireless expert & Officer in Charge of International Monitoring Station, Perungudi, Madras
PW-255 Aveek Sarkar, journalist who interviewed Rajiv Gandhi on July 30-31, 1990, for the interview which appeared in the Sunday magazine Aug.12-19, 1990.
PW-256 A.Selvaraj
PW-258 Vazhapadi K. Ramamurthi, President Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, & later Thamilzhaga Rajiv Congress
PW-260 Nagarathinam, attending laundry business in Kodiakkarai
PW-262 K.Ramakrishnan, handwriting expert
PW-266 Venkateswaran, Investigating Officer
PW-267 Ch.Gandhi, handwriting expert, who checked the handwriting of Sivarasan (deceased accused)
PW-271 P.P.Chandrsekara Nair
PW-273 K.S.Madhavan, Sub Inspector of Police, Tamil Nadu State Police
PW-280 Dr.P.Chandrasekaran, Director, Tamil Nadu Forensic Science Laboratory, Madras
PW-281 M.Narayanan, Deputy Superintendent of Police, CBI (one of the Investigating Officers)
PW-282 Velliapandi, Inspector, CBI
PW-285 R.Sivaji, Superintendent of Police, who arrested Santhan (2nd accused)
PW-288 K.Raghothaman, DSP, CBI, SIT, Chief Investigating Officer”
S. Doraisamy profile
As an active participant in the assassination trial, attorney Doraisamy had supplemented my 2001 list, by adding quite a number missing names, and annotations about each of the prosecution witnesses. These annotations are more interesting. This listing consumes the longest chapter of the book (from page 29 to page 105). I include Dorisamy’s additions below to complete the listing.
PW-1 Inspector Mathuram [Sriperumbudur police office]
PW-2 Balbir Singh
PW-3 A.S.Varma
PW-4 Capt. Santhok
PW-5 Swaminathan
PW-6 F.C. Sarma
PW-7 R.K. Raghavan [Police officer]
PW-8 Ramakrishnan
PW-9 A.J. Das
PW-10 T.N. Ranganatha Mudaliyar
PW-11 M. Jothi
PW-12 Balraj (videographer, who recorded events of Rajiv’s arrival in an open jeep from the airport to Sripeumbudur.)
PW-13 K. Balan
PW-14 Babu
PW-15 Paramanantham
PW-16 M. Selvam
PW-17 M. Rajendran
PW-21 Perumal
PW-24 Venkatesan
PW-25 Parthasarathy
PW-26 Maathoor Ramasamy Naidu
PW-28 Bhagawan Singh [Reporter for Sunday News journal]
PW-30 G.C. Sekhar [Special reporter for Telegraph News]
PW-31 K. Viswanathan [senior photographer for Thina Malar daily]
PW-33 Latha Priyakumar (daughter of PW 29 – Mrs. Maragatham Chandrasekhar)
PW-36 R. Varathan
PW-37 Mahboob Khan
PW-38 Rama Naidu
PW-39 P. Devaraj
PW-40 K. Murgugan
PW-41 A. Mohana
PW-42 M. Annamalai
PW-43 K. Santhakumari
PW-44 P. Jothiammal
PW-45 Pradeep V. Philip
PW-46 S. Albert Dayakaran
PW-47 T. Pandian (Communist Party candidate for North Madras in 1991 election, who was arranged as a translator for Rajiv Gandhi’s speech)
PW-48 J. Nanjil Kumaran
PW-49 M. Jeyabalan [photographer]
PW-50 N. Purasai Kumaran
PW-51 K. Ulaganathan
PW-53 Gandhi (a Sri Lankan refugee)
PW-55 Aswatramaiah
PW-64 Saranathan
PW-66 Rajapaksa (a CID associate director, of Sri Lanka)
PW-68 Eswaralingam
PW-69 Sureshkumar
PW-76 Rajalakshmi
PW-79 Thasim [wireless operator at Sri Lankan intelligence service]
PW-80 Jayalath Manik Wijemunde (an official of Dept. of Immigration, Sri Lanka)
PW-83 Venkatraman
PW-87 Dharmalingam [photo studio owner]
PW-89 Nagooran
PW-92 G. Rangarajan
PW-101 M. Balakrishnan
PW-103 Alexandar (a Sri Lankan refugee)
PW-105 Arjun Rajagopal
PW-110 Janaki Venkatraman [worked at Aside journal office]
PW-112 Suresh Krishna
PW-113 Seenivasan
PW-118 [name not mentioned]
PW-119 [name not mentioned]
PW-122 Kokuldas
PW-123 V.D. Ethiraj
PW-125 and PW-126 (names not mentioned)
PW-131 A. Nallavar Selvam [father of Latha Kannan, who died in explosion]
PW-135 to PW-145 (names not mentioned)
PW-148 Janaki [a Sri Lankan refugee, who moved to India in 1985]
PW-152 K. Varadarajan [photographer at Kanchipuram police office]
PW-154 P.M. Krishnan
PW-156 M. Narayanan [owner of photography studio at Sunkuvarchathram, Kanchipuram]
PW-158 P. Nazeem
PW-159 Pasupathi
PW-160 Nagarajan
PW-161 K. Rajadurai
PW-164 T.S. Preetham [owner of Chinon camera, used by Hari Babu]
PW-167 Mohan
PW-170 Ranganathan
PW-173 R.M. Abayankar
PW-174 Prabakaran [Later, designated as a hostile witness, for not offering false evidence.]
PW-175 Badri Narayanan [Later, designated as a hostile witness, for not offering false evidence.]
PW-176 Gulbir Singh Dugal
PW-177 T. Nagarajan
PW-180 Jeyasri Balachandar
PW-181 Anbazhagan
PW-184 Lionel Gunatilleka [officer, CID police, Colombo]
PW-188 P. Ravindar
PW-190 Romesh Bhandari [Foreign Secretary of India, from Feb 1985 to March 1986]
PW-191 Syed Ibrahim
PW-192 and PW-193 [names not mentioned]
PW-201 V. Ramanathan
PW-202 P. Vadivelu
PW-204 T. Selvaraj
PW-207 M. Abdul Cader
PW-209 Rajappa
PW-212 K. Subramania
PW-216 Kalaivanan
PW-219 Rajasekaran
PW-220 Malaichamy
PW-221 Janakiraman
PW-224 S. Ramachandran
PW-225 S.Ravichandran
PW-228 Appaji Gowda
PW-237 K. S. Kandan
PW-238 K. Selvam
PW-240 M. Ravindran
PW-241 Watson
PW-248 K.A. Ramachandran
PW-249 S. Kalamegam
PW-250 V. Gopalsamy aka Vaiko [In 1991, he was a member of Rajya Sabha. Later, he was designated as a hostile witness, for not offering false evidence.]
PW-251 Amjat Chetty
PW-253 S.P.Virmani [Visa official at Indian High Commission in Colombo.]
PW-257 Sabarwal
PW-259 A. Kaliyamoorthy
PW-261 Nanaiah
Unfortunately, Dorisamy had not provided the names of the remaining 27, from PW-262 to PW-288. According to the information I gathered in 2001, PW-288 was K. Ragothaman, a chief police investigating officer, who published his version in a 2009 book written in Tamil. In the above listing, the names of PW -118, 119, 135-145, 192, 193 were also excluded. I was curious to know whether the two prominent Congress Party politicians [G. Karupiah Moopanar and Ms. Jayanthi Natarajan, featured in the cover photo of the book] who immediately checked the corpse of Rajiv Gandhi at the location were included as prosecution witnesses in the trial.
To be fair by Ragothaman, I should mention here, he had implicated the ‘unprofessional relationship’ Dr. Chandrasekharan had with the Hindu daily editorial team, in relation to the Rajiv Assassination. In page 124 of his book, Ragothaman had stated as follows:
“The 10 photos taken by Hari Babu were the biggest evidence for this case. How did these photos landed with the Hindu daily, before they were passed to the CBI officials? Who investigated this misstep? What punishment was given to those offenders? On May 21 [1991] night, the police official who discovered the camera, had handed it to the [Tamilnadu] Forensic department team. That film role had passed into the hands of Dr. Chandrasekharan. All in [police] department knew the unprofessional links Dr. Chandrasekharan had with the Hindu daily. He even reached Sriperumbudur in the car of a Hindu reporter. After obtaining the film role, they went directly to the Hindu office, and only after getting the prints from the film, they handed it to CBI!”
Doraisamy adds another mystery related to this camera. “Police IG, R.K. Raghavan located the camera from Hari Babu’s corpse on May 22nd early morning 3.30am. For one to take photo in night, high flash light is a necessity. But, the camera picked up by the police officer didn’t have high flash light equipment. What happened to it? Who would have taken it before hand?” [page 204]
While commenting about the testimony of T.S. Subramanian [PW-35], a reporter working for the Hindu publishers, Doraisamy had inferred that Subramanian’s ‘purported’ evidence was his personal opinions. “Usually, personal opinions are unaccepted in the court. But, in this particular case, personal opinions of prosecution witnesses were accepted, because CBI couldn’t show and prove any direct evidence for LTTE’s motive for killing Rajiv Gandhi. This is because, they couldn’t capture any incriminating evidence. That’s why they installed journalists as witnesses to deliver anti-LTTE opinion.” (page 49). The only motive which CBI could offer against LTTE was that, if Rajiv Gandhi was re-elected as the prime minister in 1991, LTTE feared that he would land Indian army again in Sri Lanka. This logic was seriously flawed, because situation in Sri Lanka had changed by 1991. J.R. Jayewardene was the President when Rajiv signed the accord in 1987. Even then, R. Premadasa (then holding the position of prime minister) was strongly opposed for the signing of this accord. In 1991, R. Premadasa was the president and after assuming presidency in 1989 the first thing he wanted was to get rid of the Indian army from the island. Premadasa was willing to go to war with the Indian army in 1989. Only a last minute mediation by S. Thondaman Sr. and a lackadaisical thigh-shaking response by the Sri Lankan army officials prevented this Sri Lankan army- Indian army conflict.
Overall, the author Doraisamy deserves an applause for bringing to light the intimidating behavior of CBI officials on witnesses, as well as the impotence and inept handling by CBI in this Rajiv assassination case. In his preface, Doraisamy had accused CBI officials for their infatuation with love stories, and spending excess time to intimidate the prosecution witnesses [S.Sundari (PW-171) – the girl-friend of deceased accused photographer Hari Babu, N. Latha (PW-149) – the girl-friend of 20th accused Pakianathan] and the accused [3rd accused Murugan aka Sriharan and 1st accused Nalini]. Doraisamy had asserted that there was no link between these ‘love stories’ and the Rajiv Gandhi assassination.
The moto of CBI is stated as ‘Industry, Impartiality and Integrity’. If one views the progress of Rajiv assassination trial and the Supreme Court verdict delivered in 1999, CBI’s moto deserve alteration to ‘Intimidating, Inept and Impotent’. Ironically two of the police officials involved in the Rajiv assassination case served as the Director of CBI later. According to the home page of CBI, Mr. Karthikeyan was an acting director from Jan.31, 1998 to March 31, 1998. Mr. Raghavan served as the director from Jan.4, 1999 to April 30, 2001. This Raghavan also served as a regular columnist of the Frontline magazine, published by the Hindu group. As such, they had their immediate reasons to cover their derrieres. The role played by the Hindu group journalists in creating confusion among Indian reading public and diverting the Rajiv assassination trial deserves an in-depth study as well.
A comprehensive review of all the published books on Rajiv assassination trial, as well as the findings of two investigation commissions Justice Jagdish Sharan Verma and Justice Milap Chand Jain, and prevailing biases of authors seems to be a necessity.
Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Trial Books
Rajeev Sharma: Beyond the Tigers – Tracking Rajiv Gandhi’s Assassination, Kaveri Books, New Delhi, 1998, 278 pp. Foreword by Raja Vijay Karan [Vijay Karan was the director of CBI at the time of Rajiv assassination.]
Subramanian Swamy: The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi – Unanswered Questions and Unasked Queries, Konark Publishers, New Delhi, 2000, 317 pp.
Ramesh Dalal: Rajiv Gandhi’s Assassination – They Mystery Unfolds, UBS Publishers, New Delhi, 2001, 334 pp.
D.R. Kaarthikeyan and Radhavinod Raju: Triumph of Truth – The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination – The Investigation, New Dawn Press Inc., Slough, Berkshire, UK, 2004, 261 pp.
Chandra Sekharan: The First Human Bomb (The Untold tory of the Rajiv Gandhi Assassination), ALT Publications, Hyderabad, 2008 (?), 270 pp.
Ragothaman: Rajiv Kolai Vazhakku – Marmam Vilahum Neram [Rajiv Assassination Case – Time for Secrets to be Exposed], Kizhakky Pathippagam, Chennai, 2009, 232 pp (in Tamil).