Special agency set up for Rajiv Gandhi assassination case disbanded

The government has disbanded the multi-disciplinary monitoring agency (MDMA) constituted within the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate a wider international conspiracy angle in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, and transferred the case to one of its regular branches, people familiar with the development said.

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MDMA, which was set up in 1998 on the recommendations of the Justice M C Jain Commission of Inquiry which probed the conspiracy aspect of Gandhi’s assassination, was headed by deputy inspector general (DIG) rank officer of CBI and comprised of 4-5 officers from Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Revenue Intelligence at the time of its disbanding.

When contacted, the department of personnel & training (DOPT) didn’t comment on the matter.

There was a time when it was headed by a joint director rank officer and had at least 40 officers working in it. “For nearly two decades, MDMA officers were dedicated to the case. Formal judicial requests (also known as Letter Rogatories) were sent to several countries including Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Malaysia, the UK, etc; over a dozen foreign trips were made spending crores of rupees; bank transactions of LTTE’s front organisations before and after the assassination and movement of arms around that time were investigated; but there was no progress”, said an officer, who didn’t want to be named.

“It was high time MDMA was closed”, he added, asking not to be named.

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A second officer said that in 2009, the then chief of MDMA recommended winding up the unit in a note to CBI director saying “it was wastage of time and public funds”.

The special unit within CBI was receiving yearly extensions, for the past 20 years (after the initial two year tenure) “had become almost defunct over the years as there was no breakthrough on any international conspiracy,” said the second officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at a poll rally.

Fourteen others, including Dhanu herself, were also killed. Gandhi’s assassination was probably the first case in the country of suicide bombing which had claimed the life of a high-profile leader.

The people cited above said the government sent a communiqué to CBI in May this year ordering termination of MDMA as there was no need to spare four-five officers for a conspiracy probe which has been pending for two decades.

They, however, clarified that the case remains open with the Special Task Force (STF) of CBI.

The decision to close MDMA was taken around the time when the Supreme Court in May ordered the release of accused AG Perarivalan, who was serving life sentence in the assassination case, noting his long incarceration of over 30 years and no history of complaint when out on parole.

The Tamil Nadu government has also supported the premature release of seven other convicts including S Nalini and RP Ravichandran.

A former CBI director, without being named, said - “It’s good that MDMA has been closed. It was not serving any purpose and lot of resources have been put in it for nothing”.