TADA Court Sitting on Rajiv Gandhi's Case Reports

By J Shanmugha Sundaram

Published: 17th April 2015

VELLORE:A G Perarivalan’s (one of the convicts charged with the assassination of former PM Rajiv Gandhi) counsel A Tholkappian revealed on Thursday that even though the Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) (Agency constituted by the CBI to probe a possible conspiracy with foreign links behind the assassination) has submitted a total of 66 reports in sealed covers to the TADA court, the TADA court is yet to open the sealed covers let alone read the reports till date.

Perarivalan’s advocate Tholkappiam coming out of the Vellore Central prison after meeting him on Thursday | S Dinesh

“The State Information Commission’s (SIC) chief K S Sripathy disclosed the information to Perarivalan, during a hearing though video conferencing (VC),” K Tholkappian said quoting Perarivalan (alias) Arivu. “The reports furnished by the agency probing into the case have not yet been opened. If the reports are opened, it will help to prove Arivu’s innocence,” said the advocate representing Arivu. Perarivalan was granted a 45 minute video conference session with the SIC after his pleas had been turned down by the Madras High Court and TADA Court seeking details and the status of the MDMA inquiry.

Arivu then approached SIC on November 18, 2014 and the video-conference began at 11 am with the appellant in prison.   MDMA’s reports are of paramount importance to build his case, Tholkappaian said and added that the agency is trying to determine who and where the IED (Improvised Explosive Device) belt-bomb was made, which murdered Rajiv Gandhi.

Arivu in his written submission, said, “The outcome in this aspect is very much related to my case, because I was charged and convicted for providing a 9-volt battery cell as power source (for the) IED.” Having put forth this point during the VC he also raised the issue of the money spent for MDMA for carrying out the probe.

Citing the Supreme Court’s order, Arivu told the SIC that TADA Act is not applicable for him and the other accused in this particular case. Meanwhile, the SIC’s Chief having heard Arivu’s statement, said they would pass an order soon.