Rajiv Gandhi: The fateful night of May 21, 1991 in Madras and New Delhi

[Kool_SRG]

Rajiv Gandhi was in such a hurry and so eager to reach Chennai that he didn't even bother to inform his own personal security chief OP Sagar, who was traveling in a separate van. Rajiv went to Madras without his personal security team.

 

In the two years before Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, India had witness political instability. The Second Janata experiment had failed and Congress had once become the lone political option and alternative.

Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was more than confident of getting back power in the mid-term Lok Sabha elections of 1991. Rajiv Gandhi was on a campaign spree. Rajiv Gandhi believed he was going to be the Prime Minister once again. His election campaign was vigorous.

Incidentally, Rajiv Gandhi's campaign remained unmatched till Narendra Modi launched his for the 2014 polls.

FATE TOOK RAJIV TO MADRAS

It was around 6 o'clock in the evening when Rajiv Gandhi finished his electioneering in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam. His chopper was being readied for his flight to Madras - as Chennai was known as then - where a host of Congress leaders including GK Moopanar, Margatham Chandrashekhar and young Jayanthi Natrajan.

Rajiv Ganndhi's pilot, suddenly, informed him that the chopper had developed some technical snag and flying to Chennai wouldn't be possible. A disappointed Rajiv Gandhi headed towards the state guest house.

While Rajiv Gandhi was still on his way to the guest house, the police team escorting him received a wireless message that the chopper was ready to fly. Rajiv Gandhi made an about turn and headed again towards the airport.

Rajiv Gandhi's pilot Captain Chandok would later reveal that the engineers of King's Airways had fixed the technical snag in the communication system of the chopper.

Rajiv Gandhi was in such a hurry and so eager to reach Chennai that he didn't even bother to inform his own personal security chief OP Sagar, who was traveling in a separate van. Rajiv went to Madras without his personal security team.

 

CHENNAI TO SRIPERUMBUDUR

Minutes before 8.30 in the evening, Rajiv Gandhi was received by Congress leaders at Madras. Rajiv Gandhi had to address an election rally at Sriperumbudur that night. He was already late for the rally.

Rajiv Gandhi got into a car along with M Chandrashekhar, GK Moopanar and Ramamurthy. Jayanti Natrajan would follow him in another car.

It was already 10 past 10 on the night of May 21, 1991, when Rajiv Gandhi reached Sriperumbudur. A huge gathering was there waiting for Rajiv Gandhi. A song was being played showering praise on Rajiv Gandhi invoking name of his mother Indira Gandhi.

There were separate gatherings of men and women. Rajiv Gandhi first went towards men and then headed towards the gallery where women were cheering for him.

Among the crowd was a young woman of around 30, who moved towards Rajiv Gandhi purposefully. A woman police constable, later identified as Anusuya, tried to stop the lady but Rajiv Gandhi intervened and asked her to let the woman inside the fence. "Don't worry. Relax," Rajiv Gandhi had said.

And, then came true Rajiv Gandhi's own prediction made seven years ago, when Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984. What Rajiv Gandhi said to woman police constable were his last words.

RAJIV GANDHI'S PREDICTION

Indira Gandhi's close associate PC Alexander, whose presidential candidature was opposed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi later, has written his book, My Days With Indira Gandhi, that he saw Rajiv Gandhi and his wife fighting in the corridor of AIIMS in New Delhi after the assassination of the former Prime Minister.

Rajiv Gandhi told Sonia that the Congress party wanted him to take oath as the Prime Minister after Indira Gandhi's death. Sonia Gandhi, wrote Alexander, was dead against the idea. "No, they will kill you too," Alexander quoted Sonia Gandhi as saying in his book.

Rajiv Gandhi, Alexander wrote, replied saying that 'I don't have an alternative. I will anyway get killed.' This was October 31, 1984.

On May 21, 1991 LTTE's suicide bomber Dhanu triggered the bomb as she bent to touch Rajiv Gandhi's feet and the former Prime Minister attempted to lift her.

It was 10.21 pm, the investigation diary noted.

There was blood and human flesh everywhere. Rajiv Gandhi's body was identified from his Lotto shoes and Gucci wrist watch. His body was lying near his security in-charge Pradeep Gupta.

AT 10, JANPATH, NEW DELHI

It was around 10.25 on the fateful night that Sonia Gandhi received a call from someone asking if everything was fine. The Gandhis had been preparing to call it a night and Rajiv Gandhi's personal secretary Vincent George had left for day.

Sensing trouble, Sonia Gandhi immediately summoned for Vincent George, who had just reached his home and was greeted with a phone call from Madras informing about the bad news. When Sonia Gandhi called up Vincent George, he was on the phone call fom Madras.

Sonia waited for Vincent George to finish his call but Rajiv Gandhi's personal secretary could not then muster courage to tell her what had happened on the phone. He rather rushed back to 10, Janpath, where he told what happened at Sriperumbudur.

By that time, many Congress leaders had started gathering at 10, Janpath. Sonia Gandhi's wails could easily be heard by them.

PRIYANKA IN CONTROL

Rashid Kidwai writes in Sonia Gandhi's biography that she had an attack of asthma as she cried inconsolably. She was not in a position to have control over anything. No one knew what needed to be done.

Suddenly, Priyanka Gandhi gathered herself and asked Vincent George to arrange for their travel to Madras, where the body of Rajiv Gandhi was being taken to.

Meanwhile, the then President R Venkataraman called up to express his condolences. On learning that the Gandhis were planning to go to Madras, he advised not to go there as the situation was bad.

But, Priyanka Gandhi insisted on going to Madras. Some three hours later past midnight, they reached Madras only to be told that Sonia and Priyanka could not see the face of Rajiv Gandhi. He was lying in a coffin.

INVESTIGATION

The investigation of the case was handed over to a special team under CRPF IG DR Karthikeyan. The team found out that it was an LTTE plot.

Seven members of LTTE were arrested. However, main conspirator Sivarasan and his associates committed suicide consuming cyanide capsule.

But, it was fast-paced investigation as the charge-sheet was filed before the first death anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi.

[Kool_SRG]

[Kool_SRG]

LTTE had Plan B ready to kill Rajiv Gandhi in Delhi

Key entries in what the CBI's SIT called the 'Delhi plot' figure in the LTTE assassin's diaries. Copies of the diaries, exclusively obtained by India Today, reveal how Sivarasan planned to infiltrate a travel agency in the capital.

 

Rajiv Gandhi assassination mastermind Sivarasan also had a plan to target the former Prime Minister in Delhi. This would be the Plan B in case Sivarasan failed to assassinate him in Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991.

Key entries in what the CBI's SIT called the 'Delhi plot' figure in the LTTE assassin's diaries. Copies of the diaries, exclusively obtained by India Today, reveal how Sivarasan planned to infiltrate a travel agency in the capital. The agency is run by a distant relative of Rajiv Gandhi's close aide, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's wife Suneet.

An entry in Sivarasan's diary, which was seized by the CBI from a Tiger safehouse in July 1991, notes a 'V. Kalyasundaram, President Travel Service, 811 Arunachal Building, Barakhamba Road, Connaught Place, New Delhi-11'. Enquiries with the agency revealed that Kalyanasundaram worked there as assistant manager and moved out in 2004.

Kalyanasundaram, who is now settled in Chennai, denies ever having been contacted by Sivarasan or anyone related to him. K. Ragothaman, the CBI's chief investigator in the case, says the LTTE had got his contact details from Kalyanasundaram's uncle, Jagadeesan, a retired armyman who ran a rice mill in Thopputhurai. "It was a lead that the LTTE never followed up."

Mani Shankar Aiyar, when contacted by India Today, denied any knowledge of the existence of such a plan and dismissed it outright. "Nobody ever made any contact with me. The connection to President Travels is very distant and I didn't use them (for ticketing) until after I was elected (to Mayiladuthurai constituency in 1991)," he said.
Ragothaman explains how the LTTE would have used this lead. "The LTTE worked several months in advance. They opened safehouses in Chennai in October 1990, seven months before the assassination. They used Congress MP Maragatham Chandrasekhar to get their human bomb close to Rajiv Gandhi in Sriperumbudur, without her ever suspecting it," he says.

On April 28, the LTTE sent Sonia, a 17-year-old suicide bomber, to a safehouse in Chennai where she would remain in wait for Plan B. She was chosen for being light complexioned, which would allow her to merge into a crowd in New Delhi. Sivarasan had already recruited Kanagasabapathy, a retired Sri Lankan Tamil government servant for the purpose. Kanagasabapathy, in his late 70s, was the father of a deceased LTTE commander. In May, Kanagasabapathy had hired a safehouse in the capital: House number A 233, in north Moti Bagh. The LTTE identified it using a real estate broker in nearby Shanti Niketan.

The two-room Central government quarter, illegally sub-let by its government allottee, offered the perfect cover. It was located in a sprawl of single-storey government accommodation in the heart of the national capital. It was just eight kilometres away from Rajiv Gandhi's 10 Janpath residence. Kanagasabapathy paid Rs 5000 as advance to the broker. "My grand-daughter will come and stay here in a few days," he assured the broker. 'Athirai', he said, wanted to study Hindi and computer applications in the capital, he said.

Sivarasan was, however, confident of assassinating the former Prime Minister in Tamil Nadu. The Tigers' intelligence chief, Pottu Amman, favoured the national capital. "Why not we try Delhi?" asked Amman in a coded message in March 1991. "I'm confident that I can do it here (in Tamil Nadu)," Sivarasan replied. Pottu Amman overruled him and insisted he continue with the Delhi operation. The Delhi plot was abandoned because the Tigers were successful in Sriperumbudur.

The Delhi plan was abandoned soon after the LTTE murdered Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991. But its existence told the investigators of the LTTE's fanatical determination to stop Rajiv Gandhi from becoming Prime Minister.

Athirai and Kanagasabapathy were arrested from a hotel in Paharganj in June 1991 as they attempted to flee to Nepal. They were released in 1999 after an eight-year jail term because the Supreme Court did not link them to the Sriperumbudur plot. They migrated to Switzerland. Athirai married a co-accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination Vicky alias Vighneshwaran.

 

[Kool_SRG]

Sivarasan's diary reveals plot to kill Rajiv Gandhi

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/video/rajiv-gandhi-assassination-sivarasan-jayakumar-ltte-cbi-k-ragothaman-murugan-santhan-perarivalan-nalini/1/346202.html

[ram4a]

Bhopal gas tragedy victims osuru ppskoni chachadu

[k2s]

4 hours ago, Kool_SRG said:

Rajiv Gandhi was in such a hurry and so eager to reach Chennai that he didn't even bother to inform his own personal security chief OP Sagar, who was traveling in a separate van. Rajiv went to Madras without his personal security team.

 

In the two years before Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, India had witness political instability. The Second Janata experiment had failed and Congress had once become the lone political option and alternative.

Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was more than confident of getting back power in the mid-term Lok Sabha elections of 1991. Rajiv Gandhi was on a campaign spree. Rajiv Gandhi believed he was going to be the Prime Minister once again. His election campaign was vigorous.

Incidentally, Rajiv Gandhi's campaign remained unmatched till Narendra Modi launched his for the 2014 polls.

FATE TOOK RAJIV TO MADRAS

It was around 6 o'clock in the evening when Rajiv Gandhi finished his electioneering in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam. His chopper was being readied for his flight to Madras - as Chennai was known as then - where a host of Congress leaders including GK Moopanar, Margatham Chandrashekhar and young Jayanthi Natrajan.

Rajiv Ganndhi's pilot, suddenly, informed him that the chopper had developed some technical snag and flying to Chennai wouldn't be possible. A disappointed Rajiv Gandhi headed towards the state guest house.

While Rajiv Gandhi was still on his way to the guest house, the police team escorting him received a wireless message that the chopper was ready to fly. Rajiv Gandhi made an about turn and headed again towards the airport.

Rajiv Gandhi's pilot Captain Chandok would later reveal that the engineers of King's Airways had fixed the technical snag in the communication system of the chopper.

Rajiv Gandhi was in such a hurry and so eager to reach Chennai that he didn't even bother to inform his own personal security chief OP Sagar, who was traveling in a separate van. Rajiv went to Madras without his personal security team.

 

CHENNAI TO SRIPERUMBUDUR

Minutes before 8.30 in the evening, Rajiv Gandhi was received by Congress leaders at Madras. Rajiv Gandhi had to address an election rally at Sriperumbudur that night. He was already late for the rally.

Rajiv Gandhi got into a car along with M Chandrashekhar, GK Moopanar and Ramamurthy. Jayanti Natrajan would follow him in another car.

It was already 10 past 10 on the night of May 21, 1991, when Rajiv Gandhi reached Sriperumbudur. A huge gathering was there waiting for Rajiv Gandhi. A song was being played showering praise on Rajiv Gandhi invoking name of his mother Indira Gandhi.

There were separate gatherings of men and women. Rajiv Gandhi first went towards men and then headed towards the gallery where women were cheering for him.

Among the crowd was a young woman of around 30, who moved towards Rajiv Gandhi purposefully. A woman police constable, later identified as Anusuya, tried to stop the lady but Rajiv Gandhi intervened and asked her to let the woman inside the fence. "Don't worry. Relax," Rajiv Gandhi had said.

And, then came true Rajiv Gandhi's own prediction made seven years ago, when Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984. What Rajiv Gandhi said to woman police constable were his last words.

RAJIV GANDHI'S PREDICTION

Indira Gandhi's close associate PC Alexander, whose presidential candidature was opposed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi later, has written his book, My Days With Indira Gandhi, that he saw Rajiv Gandhi and his wife fighting in the corridor of AIIMS in New Delhi after the assassination of the former Prime Minister.

Rajiv Gandhi told Sonia that the Congress party wanted him to take oath as the Prime Minister after Indira Gandhi's death. Sonia Gandhi, wrote Alexander, was dead against the idea. "No, they will kill you too," Alexander quoted Sonia Gandhi as saying in his book.

Rajiv Gandhi, Alexander wrote, replied saying that 'I don't have an alternative. I will anyway get killed.' This was October 31, 1984.

On May 21, 1991 LTTE's suicide bomber Dhanu triggered the bomb as she bent to touch Rajiv Gandhi's feet and the former Prime Minister attempted to lift her.

It was 10.21 pm, the investigation diary noted.

There was blood and human flesh everywhere. Rajiv Gandhi's body was identified from his Lotto shoes and Gucci wrist watch. His body was lying near his security in-charge Pradeep Gupta.

AT 10, JANPATH, NEW DELHI

It was around 10.25 on the fateful night that Sonia Gandhi received a call from someone asking if everything was fine. The Gandhis had been preparing to call it a night and Rajiv Gandhi's personal secretary Vincent George had left for day.

Sensing trouble, Sonia Gandhi immediately summoned for Vincent George, who had just reached his home and was greeted with a phone call from Madras informing about the bad news. When Sonia Gandhi called up Vincent George, he was on the phone call fom Madras.

Sonia waited for Vincent George to finish his call but Rajiv Gandhi's personal secretary could not then muster courage to tell her what had happened on the phone. He rather rushed back to 10, Janpath, where he told what happened at Sriperumbudur.

By that time, many Congress leaders had started gathering at 10, Janpath. Sonia Gandhi's wails could easily be heard by them.

PRIYANKA IN CONTROL

Rashid Kidwai writes in Sonia Gandhi's biography that she had an attack of asthma as she cried inconsolably. She was not in a position to have control over anything. No one knew what needed to be done.

Suddenly, Priyanka Gandhi gathered herself and asked Vincent George to arrange for their travel to Madras, where the body of Rajiv Gandhi was being taken to.

Meanwhile, the then President R Venkataraman called up to express his condolences. On learning that the Gandhis were planning to go to Madras, he advised not to go there as the situation was bad.

But, Priyanka Gandhi insisted on going to Madras. Some three hours later past midnight, they reached Madras only to be told that Sonia and Priyanka could not see the face of Rajiv Gandhi. He was lying in a coffin.

INVESTIGATION

The investigation of the case was handed over to a special team under CRPF IG DR Karthikeyan. The team found out that it was an LTTE plot.

Seven members of LTTE were arrested. However, main conspirator Sivarasan and his associates committed suicide consuming cyanide capsule.

But, it was fast-paced investigation as the charge-sheet was filed before the first death anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi.

Ivvala chanipoyina dinam a?

[Kool_SRG]

Just now, k2s said:

Ivvala chanipoyina dinam a?

Yes 21st May...

[siru]

13 minutes ago, ram4a said:

Bhopal gas tragedy victims osuru ppskoni chachadu

so by ur logic.. modi ki gujarat riot victims usuru tagultadi for sure..??

[Kool_SRG]

1 minute ago, siru said:

so by ur logic.. modi ki gujarat riot victims usuru tagultadi for sure..??

[ram4a]

19 minutes ago, siru said:

so by ur logic.. modi ki gujarat riot victims usuru tagultadi for sure..??

Bhopal gas victims were innocent ppl and Rajiv Gandhi personally escorted Union carbide ceo to the Airport.

In gujarat some asshole muslim pricks started an unnecessary riot and they also got killed.

 

So i dont see any relation except you asshoooles who always bring Modi's name in all events nice you should get Butthurt with his success.

[BulletBaskar]

58 minutes ago, ram4a said:

Bhopal gas victims were innocent ppl and Rajiv Gandhi personally escorted Union carbide ceo to the Airport.

In gujarat some asshole muslim pricks started an unnecessary riot and they also got killed.

 

So i dont see any relation except you asshoooles who always bring Modi's name in all events nice you should get Butthurt with his success.

ee thurki mooonda kodukula/commies/leftist erri pook logic atlane untai bro
maha dangerous kodukulu

[lazybugger]

2 hours ago, ram4a said:

Bhopal gas victims were innocent ppl and Rajiv Gandhi personally escorted Union carbide ceo to the Airport.

In gujarat some asshole muslim pricks started an unnecessary riot and they also got killed.

 

So i dont see any relation except you asshoooles who always bring Modi's name in all events nice you should get Butthurt with his success.

what an asshole you are. didn't any innocent muslims die in the state enabled carnage?

you should be butthurt that no decent person will ever endorse that mass murderer. only gaurakshaks and half wits like you will.

hope you and your hero Modi die a dog's death.

 

[lazybugger]

1 hour ago, BulletBaskar said:

ee thurki mooonda kodukula/commies/leftist erri pook logic atlane untai bro
maha dangerous kodukulu

hindutva pichi saaley gaalley cheppala logic gurinchi.

demonetization ki kooda siggu lekunda vattasu palikina panikimaalina yedhavaley ga meerantha. 

thoo mee brathuku.

[siru]

3 hours ago, ram4a said:

Bhopal gas victims were innocent ppl and Rajiv Gandhi personally escorted Union carbide ceo to the Airport.

In gujarat some asshole muslim pricks started an unnecessary riot and they also got killed.

 

So i dont see any relation except you asshoooles who always bring Modi's name in all events nice you should get Butthurt with his success.

women were raped..some pregnant women were cut open their wombs..

tell me how exactly did those women were responsible for the riots? did they start them?