Remains of clothing worn by Rajiv Gandhi during the assassination

The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, former

Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...

, occurred as a result of a

suicide bombing A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...

Sriperumbudur Sriperumbudur is a town panchayat in the Kanchipuram district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located 40 kilometers southwest of the capital city of Chennai on the National Highway 4 and is just outside the Chennai Metropolitan ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

, India on 21 May 1991. At least 14 others, in addition to

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...

, were killed. It was carried out by Kalaivani Rajaratnam (popularly known by her assumed names Thenmozhi Rajaratnam and Dhanu), a member of the

Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers in the Eastern P ...

separatist organization

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...

(LTTE) along with Dr. Jagjit Singh Chohan of the National Council of Khalistan (NCK) and

Gurjant Singh Budhsinghwala Gurjant Singh Budhsinghwala (1964 - 29 July 1992) was the third chief of the Khalistan Liberation Force. Early life and family Gurjant Singh was born in the village of Budhsinghwala, District Faridkot in 1964. He had four siblings — one si ...

of the Khalistan Liberation Force. At the time, India had just ended its

involvement {{Short pages monitor Rajiv Gandhi was busy election-campaigning with G.K. Moopanar in southern states of India. On 21 May, after campaigning in

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura submarine museu ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

, his next stop was Sriperumbudur,

. About two hours after arriving in

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

(now Chennai), Gandhi was driven by motorcade in a white Ambassador car to

, stopping along the way at a few other election campaigning venues. When Rajiv reached a campaign rally in Sriperumbudur, he left his car and began walking towards the

dais A dais or daïs ( or , American English also but sometimes considered nonstandard)dais
in the Random House Dictionary< ...

where he was to deliver a speech. Along the way, he was garlanded by many well-wishers,

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

workers and school children. The assassin, Kalaivani Rajaratnam (popularly known by her assumed names Thenmozhi Rajaratnam and Dhanu), approached and greeted him. She then bent down to touch his feet and detonated an RDX explosive-laden belt tucked below her dress at exactly 10:10 PM. Gandhi, his assailant and 14 others were killed in the explosion that followed, along with 43 others who were grievously injured. The assassination was caught on film by a local photographer, Haribabu, whose camera and film was found intact at the site despite him also dying in the blast.

Victims

Apart from the suicide bomber Kalaivani Rajaratnam (popularly known by her assumed names Thenmozhi Rajaratnam and Dhanu), several people were killed in the blast on 21 May 1991: *

, former Prime Minister of India * Dharman, police constable * Santhani Begum, Mahila Congress Leader * Rajguru, police inspector * Chandra, police constable * Edward Joseph, police inspector * K.S Mohammed Iqbal, police superintendent * Latha Kannan, Mahila Congress worker, who was with her daughter Kokilavani * Kokilavani, ten-year-old daughter of Latha Kannan, who sang a poem to

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

immediately before the blast * Darryl Jude Peters, attendee and observer * Munuswamy, former member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Council * Saroja Devi, seventeen-year-old college student * Pradeep K Gupta, personal security officer of Rajiv Gandhi * Ethiraju * Murugan, police constable * Ravichandran,

Black Cat A black cat is a domestic cat with black fur that may be a mixed or specific breed, or a common domestic cat of no particular breed. The Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) recognizes 22 cat breeds that can come with solid black coats. The Bombay b ...

commando Around forty-three bystanders including police sub-inspector Anushiya Daisy were also injured in the explosion.

Security lapses

The

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

held that the decision to eliminate Gandhi was precipitated by his interview to ''Sunday'' magazine (21–28 August 1990), where he stated that he would send the IPKF to disarm the LTTE if he returned to power. Gandhi also defended the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka accord in the same interview. The LTTE decision to kill him was perhaps aimed at preventing him from coming to power again. Thereafter, the Justice

J. S. Verma Jagdish Sharan Verma (18 January 1933 – 22 April 2013) was an Indian jurist who served as the 27th Chief Justice of India from 25 March 1997 to 18 January 1998. He was the chairman of National Human Rights Commission from 1999 to 2003, and c ...

Commission was formed to look into the security lapses that contributed to the killing. The final report, submitted in June 1992, concluded that the security arrangements for the former PM were adequate but that the local

Congress party The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

leaders disrupted and broke these arrangements. The Narasimha Rao government initially rejected Verma's findings but later accepted it under pressure. However, no action was taken on the recommendations of the commission. Despite no action, the findings raised vital questions that have previously been consistently raised by political analysts. Sources have indicated that Gandhi was repeatedly informed that there was a threat to his life and that he should not travel to Tamil Nadu. In fact, the then governor of Tamil Nadu

Bhishma Narain Singh Bhishma Narain Singh (13 July 1933 – 1 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served as the Governor of Assam from 1984 to 1989 and Governor of Tamil Nadu from 1991 to 1993.Subramanian Swamy Subramanian Swamy (born 15 September 1939) is an Indian politician, economist and statistician. Before joining politics, he was a professor of Mathematical Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is known for his Hindu n ...

said in his book, ''Sri Lanka in Crisis: India's Options (2007)'', that an LTTE delegation had met Rajiv Gandhi on 5 March 1991. Another delegation met him around 14 March 1991 in New Delhi. Journalist Ram Bahadur Rai wrote that:

The message conveyed to Rajiv Gandhi by both these delegations was that there was no threat to his life and that he can travel to Tamil Nadu without fearing for his life. I did a series of articles after his assassination that pointed out how, after these meetings, Rajiv became complacent about his security and broke security rules in more than 40 rallies.

Funeral

Following his assassination, Rajiv Gandhi's mutilated body was airlifted to

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Hous ...

. From the

Indira Gandhi International Airport Indira Gandhi International Airport is the primary international airport serving Delhi, the capital of India, and the National Capital Region (NCR). The airport, spread over an area of , is situated in Palam, Delhi, southwest of the New D ...

, his body was sent to the

All India Institute of Medical Sciences The All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is a group of autonomous government public medical universities of higher education under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare , Government of India. These institutes h ...

for an autopsy, reconstruction and embalming. A

state funeral A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of protocol, held to honour people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive elements of ...

was held for Rajiv Gandhi on 24 May 1991. His funeral was broadcast live nationally and internationally, and was attended by dignitaries from over 60 countries. He was cremated on the banks of the river

Yamuna The Yamuna ( Hindustani: ), also spelt Jumna, is the second-largest tributary river of the Ganges by discharge and the longest tributary in India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of about on the southwestern slopes of B ...

, near the cremation spot of his

mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ...

, Sanjay Gandhi, brother and grandfather. Today, the site where he was cremated is known as

Veerbhumi Raj Ghat is a memorial dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi in Delhi, India. Originally it was the name of a historic ghat of Old Delhi (Shahjahanabad). Close to it, and east of Daryaganj was ''Raj Ghat Gate'' of the walled city, opening at ''Raj Ghat ...

Investigation

Immediately after the assassination, the Chandrasekhar government handed the investigation over to the CBI on 22 May 1991. The agency created a special investigation team under D. R. Karthikeyan to determine who was responsible for the assassination. The SIT probe confirmed the role of the LTTE in the assassination, which was upheld by the Supreme Court of India. The interim report of Justice Milap Chand Jain, looking into the conspiracy angle to the assassination, indicted the DMK for colluding with the LTTE. The report concluded that the DMK had provided sanctuary to the LTTE, which made it easier for the rebels to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi. The Commission report stated that the year 1989 signified "the perpetuation of the general political trend of indulging the Tamil militants on Indian soil and tolerance of their wide-ranging criminal and anti-national activities". The report also alleged that LTTE leaders in Jaffna were in possession of sensitive coded messages exchanged between the Union government and the state government of DMK. "There is evidence to show that, during this period, some of the most vital wireless messages were passed between the LTTE operatives based in Tamil Nadu and Jaffna. These messages, which were decoded later, are directly related to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi", the report stated. The Congress subsequently brought down the United Front (UF) government of I K Gujral after the report was leaked in November 1998. The party also demanded the removal of DMK from the UF government, arguing that it had played a key role in the death of Rajiv Gandhi. Dr Jagjit Singh Chohan had helped with logistical and tactical support to the Tamil Tigers. His involvement was only declared in 2016 after about a 15-year speculation. This was evidence to the Jain Committee's report and suspicions that the LTTE had contacted

along with Jagjit Singh Chohan to plan the plot. "''LTTE and Punjab ultras spoke of a plan to assassinate Rajiv''." - Sewa Dass Singh, ''Phiruman Akali Dal leader'' (1992)

Perpetrator

The assassination was carried out by Kalaivani Rajaratnam (popularly known by her assumed names Thenmozhi Rajaratnam and Dhanu). She was born on 1 January 1974 in Sri Lanka. Her birth name was Kalaivani Rajaratnam. It was after joining the LTTE that she came to be known by the assumed name Thenmozhi. She was from Kupukullai in Jaffna, and studied until middle school in

Batticaloa Batticaloa ( ta, மட்டக்களப்பு, ''Maṭṭakkaḷappu''; si, මඩකලපුව, ''Maḍakalapuwa'') is a major city in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, and its former capital. It is the administrative capital of the B ...

. She was inspired by the Tamil militant group

(Tamil Tigers) at a young age, and joined the

Black Tigers The Black Tigers () was an elite suicide commando unit of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant Tamil separatist organization. They were specially selected and trained LTTE cadres whose missions included mounting suicide at ...

(suicide bombers). The main reason why Dhanu became a Tiger is that her brother was a well-known cadre who had died and she was carrying on the family tradition. Thenmozhi was the daughter of a Sri Lankan Tamil man named A. Rajaratnam and his second wife. He allegedly was described as

Velupillai Prabhakaran Velupillai Prabhakaran (; ta, வேலுப்பிள்ளை பிரபாகரன்; , (26 November 1954 – 18 May 2009) was a Sri Lankan Tamil guerrilla and the founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ...

's mentor; and he played a vital role in moulding the LTTE chief's thinking during the movement's formative years between 1972 and 1975. Marital status of Thenmozhi at the time of her death, is not known to the general public. Thenmozhi was survived by her mother, brother Sivavarman and two sisters, one of whom moved to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The court convicted and sentenced the seven persons who facilitated the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi to life imprisonment. They are currently undergoing life imprisonment in prisons in India. They are: * Murugan alias Sriharan - A

LTTE The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...

operative from Sri Lanka * Nalini - Wife of Murugan. Nalini is a citizen of India. * Santhan alias T. Suthenthiraraja - A Sri Lankan national. * Robert Pious - A Sri Lankan national. * Jayakumar - The brother in law of Robert Pious. * Ravichandran - A Sri Lankan national. *

A. G. Perarivalan A. G. Perarivalan (born 1971) was a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. He was on life imprisonment along with Murugan and Santhan who were other two convicts of the same case. The Supreme Court ordered the release of Perarivalan ...

- An Indian citizen who was arrested for supplying a 9-volt battery for the explosive device. * On November 11, 2022, the Supreme Court of India ordered the release of six convicts in the 1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, after the Tamil Nadu government controversially recommended their remission in March 2016. The release of the six convicts came months after the Supreme Court on May 18 ordered the release of AG Perarivalan, the first of the seven convicts in the case, on grounds of poor health and good conduct.

Supreme Court judgment

As per the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

judgment, by Judge K. T. Thomas, the killing was carried out due to personal animosity of the LTTE chief Prabhakaran towards

arising from his sending the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka and the alleged IPKF atrocities against Sri Lankan Tamils. Additionally, the Rajiv Gandhi administration had antagonised other Tamil militant organisations like

PLOTE The People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) is a former Tamil militant group that had become a pro-government paramilitary group and political party. PLOTE's political wing is known as the Democratic People's Liberation Front. Or ...

for reversing the military coup in

Maldives Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...

back in 1988. The judgment further cited the death of Thileepan in a hunger strike and the suicide by 12 LTTE cadres in a vessel in October 1987. While convicting the accused, four of them to death and others to various jail terms, the judgment stated that no evidence existed that any one of the conspirators ever desired the death of any Indian other than Rajiv Gandhi, though several others were killed. Judge Wadhwa further stated there was nothing on record to show that the intention to kill Rajiv Gandhi was to overawe the government. Hence it was held that it was not a terrorist act under TADA (Act). Judge Thomas further stated that conspiracy was hatched in stages commencing from 1987 and that it spanned several years. The special investigation team of India's premier special investigation agency

Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and government ...

was not able to pinpoint when the decision to kill Rajiv Gandhi was taken.

Trial

The trial was conducted under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act. On 28 January 1998, the designated TADA court in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

gave death sentences to all the 26 accused. This created a storm in India. Legal experts were divided. Human rights groups protested that the trial did not meet the standards of a free trial. The trial was held behind closed doors, ''

in camera ''In camera'' (; Latin: "in a chamber"). is a legal term that means ''in private''. The same meaning is sometimes expressed in the English equivalent: ''in chambers''. Generally, ''in-camera'' describes court cases, parts of it, or process wh ...

'', and the identity of witnesses was not disclosed. Ms A. Athirai, an accused, was 17 years old when she was arrested. Under the TADA an accused can appeal only to the

. Appeal to the High Court is not allowed as in normal law. Confessions given by the accused to the Superintendent of Police are taken as evidence against the accused under TADA. Under TADA the accused could be convicted on the basis of evidence that would have been insufficient for conviction by an ordinary court under normal Indian law. In the Rajiv Gandhi case, confessions by the accused formed a major part of the evidence in the judgment against them which they later claimed was taken under duress. On appeal to the

, only four of the accused were sentenced to death and the others to various jail terms. S Nalini Sriharan is the lone surviving member of the five-member squad behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and is serving life imprisonment. Arrested on 14 June 1991, she was sentenced to death, along with the other 25 accused. However, the court confirmed that the death sentence was given to only four of the convicts, including Nalini, on 11 May 1999. Nalini, who is the wife of an LTTE operative known as V Sriharan alias Murugan, another convict in the case who had been sentenced to death, later gave birth to a girl, Harithra Murugan in prison. Upon the intervention of Rajiv Gandhi's widow and Congress president

Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi (''née'' Maino; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independen ...

, who petitioned for clemency for the sake of Nalini's daughter in 2000, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Nalini was treated as a class 'A' convict from 10 September 1999 till the privilege was withdrawn in May 2010 after a mobile phone was allegedly recovered from her cell during a surprise check. She "regrets" the killing of the former Prime Minister and claims that the real conspirators have not been booked yet. The President of India rejected the clemency pleas of Murugan and two others on death row, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan and A G Perarivalan alias Arivu in August 2011. The execution of the three convicts was scheduled for 9 September 2011. However, the

Madras High Court The Madras High Court is a High Court in India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is located in Chennai, and is the third oldest high court of India after the Calcutta High C ...

intervened and stayed their execution for eight weeks based on their petitions. Nalini was shifted back to Vellore prison from Puzhal prison amidst tight security on 7 September 2011. In 2010, Nalini had moved the

seeking release as she had served more than 20 years in prison. She argued that even life convicts were released after 14 years. However, the state government rejected her request. Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, the three convicts condemned to death, claimed that they were not ordinary criminals but political prisoners.

Jain Commission and other reports

In the Jain report, various people and agencies are named as suspected of having been involved in the murder of Rajiv Gandhi. Among them, the cleric Chandraswami was suspected of involvement, including financing the assassination. One of the accused, Ranganath, said Chandraswami was the godfather who financed the killing. Sikh Militants were also suspected, later proven true. In 1998, it was published in a newspaper that an interim report by the Jain commission made reference to a letter citing unverified information that Queen Aishwarya Rajya Lakshmi Devi Shah of

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...

had asked a courtier general of King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev of Nepal, "to arrange for the assassination of Shri Rajiv Gandhi…(for which) Rs 10 crore would be made available.” Also included in the report are said to be the drunken utterances of a policeman confirming the matter. The interim report of the

Jain Commission Milap Chand Jain (21 July 1929-29 April 2015) was the former Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court. He was born in 1929 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. After obtaining his B. Com. and LLM A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an ...

created a storm when it accused

M. Karunanidhi Muthuvel Karunanidhi (3 June 1924 – 7 August 2018) was an Indian writer and politician who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for almost two decades over five terms between 1969 and 2011. He was popularly referred to as Kalaignar (Art ...

the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu of a role in the assassination, leading to Congress withdrawing its support for the

I. K. Gujral Inder Kumar Gujral (4 December 1919 – 30 November 2012) was an Indian diplomat, politician and freedom activist who served as the 12th prime minister of India from April 1997 to March 1998. Born in Punjab, he was influenced by nationalist ...

government and fresh elections in 1998. Also other strong LTTE sympathizers Vaiko with MDMK and

Thol. Thirumavalavan Tholkappiyan Thirumavalavan (born 17 August 1962), better known as Thol. Thirumavalavan is a political leader, scholar and activist from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He is a Member of Parliament from Chidambaram. Founder and Presid ...

with VCK have supported Congress under Sonia Gandhi in the past. Vaiko left the UPA alliance before the 2009 election, partly due to the Sri Lankan issue. In a report published on 30 October 2012 in DNA, K. Ragothaman, former chief investigator of the CBI, talks about his new book ''Conspiracy to Kill Rajiv Gandhi: From the CBI Files'' and tells the reporter that while the CBI had started a preliminary inquiry in which M. K. Narayanan, former West Bengal Governor and former Intelligence Bureau director, was named a suspect in hiding evidence, the case was buried by the CBI SIT Chief, D. R. Karthikeyan. In an interview in 2017, Justice K.T. Thomas had said that "there were serious flaws" in the CBI's investigation, particularly related to the seizure of Rs. 40 lakh in cash from the convicts, which led him to believe that the probe exposed "an unpardonable flaw" in the "Indian criminal justice system". In the 2001 Norway peace talks, Prabhakaran told the press that the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi was a sorrowful event. In 2006, LTTE spokesman Anton Balasingham told the Indian television channel

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...

that the killing was a "great tragedy, a monumental historical tragedy which we deeply regret". Months before the assassination, Vazhappady K. Ramamurthy, who served as the president of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee from 1989 to 1994, produced a letter, purportedly from the LTTE threatening to kill him and

, who had called for a tight clamp down of the LTTE activities in Tamil Nadu. The letter signed LTTE written in Tamil said that they had received orders from the leadership to eliminate people opposing their "Eelam struggle". The letter further said the following: In a 2011 interview, Kumaran Pathmanathan, who was the Treasurer of LTTE and its chief arms procurer, apologized to India for Velupillai Prabhakaran's "mistake" of killing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He further said Rajiv's assassination was "well planned and done actually with Prabhakaran and (LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman). Everyone knows the truth". In 2016, solid evidence of the involvement of Dr Jagjit Singh Chohan and

were given. In 1995, Sewa Dass Singh had seen Tamil separatists at Chohan's office a month before the assassination. Two other retrieved messages showed how he was in touch with Budhsinghwala about the assassination as well, and they were originally trying to find Haryanvis to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi instead of Tamils and Sikhs.

Memorial and popular culture

Rajiv Gandhi memorial entrance, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu

* The Rajiv Gandhi Memorial was built on the site, and is one of the major tourist attractions in the small industrial town. * ''Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi: Unanswered Questions and Unasked Queries'' by

Subramanian Swamy Subramanian Swamy (born 15 September 1939) is an Indian politician, economist and statistician. Before joining politics, he was a professor of Mathematical Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is known for his Hindu n ...

* ''Conspiracy to Kill Rajiv Gandhi - from CBI Files'' by the

officer and chief investigating officer of the assassination case. * ''Beyond the Tigers: Tracking Rajiv Gandhi's Assassination'' by Rajeev Sharma. * ''Bypass: Flaws in the Forensic Investigation of Rajiv Gandhi Murder'', the first open source feature film from India.

Films

* ''

Kuttrapathirikai ''Kuttrapathirikai'' () is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language film directed by R. K. Selvamani. The film stars Ramki, Rahman, Ramya Krishnan and Roja. The film was produced by Ravi Yadav's Yadavalaya Films, had music scored by Ilaiyaraaja and has ...

'' * '' Mission 90 Days'' * '' The Terrorist'' * ''

Cyanide Cyanide is a naturally occurring, rapidly acting, toxic chemical that can exist in many different forms. In chemistry, a cyanide () is a chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of ...

'' * ''

Madras Cafe ''Madras Cafe'' is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language political action thriller film directed by Shoojit Sircar and starring John Abraham, Nargis Fakhri with newcomer Raashi Khanna in lead roles. The film is set in the late 1980s and early 1990s, ...

Notes

References

External links

Harithra Murugan, daughter of Nalini Sriharan and Murugan interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gandhi, Rajiv Suicide bombings in 1991 Deaths by person in India Suicide bombings in India Mass murder in 1991 May 1991 events in Asia May 1991 crimes Terrorist incidents in India in 1991 1991 in India Assassinations in India Crime in Tamil Nadu Sri Lankan Civil War casualties 1990s in Tamil Nadu Rajiv Gandhi Filmed assassinations 1991 murders in India People killed during the Sri Lankan Civil War Indian Peace Keeping Force Attacks on civilians attributed to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam