Chandraswamy "knew" of plot to kill Rajiv

Chandraswamy "knew" of plot to kill Rajiv
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, OCT 20: "The big leader could be killed" and the 1991 polls postponed, a key witness before the Jain Commission has quoted controversial godman Chandraswamy as having told him before Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.

The witness, Ramesh Dalal, claimed Chandraswamy made this statement prior to the assassination of Gandhi by a human bomb at Sriperumbudur on May 21 that year.

In his forthcoming book on the assassination, its conspiracy and "cover-up", Dalal said he had gone to Chandraswamy to get election funds for a candidate who was contesting the Lok Sabha polls on a Samajwadi Janata Party (headed by then premier Chandra Shekhar) ticket from Yeotmal in Maharashtra.

The godman told him "there was no need to send the money for the election campaign as the election would be postponed."

"I asked him what was the reason for his saying so, to which he (Chandraswamy) did not reply. I told him that I had visited his ashram specially at the instance of the candidate and therefore, he should tell me when he was going to send the money.

"I continued to ask why the elections would be postponed. He (the godman) replied angrily ``there might be several reasons. Even the big leader could be killed'," Dalal, who had deposed before the Commission on several occasions, said in his book.

In 1995 when Chandraswamy's name cropped up during the panel's proceedings, Dalal claimed the controversial religious figure had "offered a huge amount" and a petrol pump to him if he "sided with him" in the Commission's proceedings.

The author said though he was "scared that he(Chandraswamy) might get me killed before my deposition" before the Jain panel, he wanted to find out more about the "conspiracy behind the assassination".

In a chapter on the "Origin of LTTE in Sri Lanka", Dalal claimed that a senior Tamil leader (then a Congress MLA) had given shelter to LTTE Chief Velupillai Prabhakaran in his house in Madurai, while another top leader (then in DMK) used to frequently visit the LTTE Chief's ailing mother who was being treated in a local hospital.

The book also has a chapter on the role of Sikh militants and their "links" with LTTE in the context of the "larger conspiracy" to kill the former Prime Minister. The author claimed that the assassination was a "joint operation" of the Sikh militants and the LTTE.

Dalal has also written on several other issues in his book and called for further inquiry into the leads by the Multi-disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA).

The MDMA, headed by the CBI Director, has been set up by the government to probe the leads on the conspiracy aspect of the assassination thrown up by the Jain Commission in its voluminous report.