MADRAS, AUG.12: Revenge for the alleged atrocities committed by the Indian Peace Keeping Forces (KPKF) was one of the primary motives for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in assassinating the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi; the prosecution told the designated court today quoting a witness, UNI reports. Elaborating on the role of the LTTE supremo, V.Pirabhakaran, and its intelligence wing leaders Daniel Jacob said the standby assassin Sabah had told a secret witness that Rajiv Gandhi was killed as a retribution for the “rape of sisters and mothers” by the IPKF.

At this stage, one of the accused stood up to say that the witness quoted was his wife who did not know English and it was strange that the statement was recorded in English.

 Counsel said Pirabhakaran was also motivated to assassinate Gandhi because of his insistence on attaching importance to other militant groups and the implementation of the Indo-Sri Lanka accord to find an amicable settlement to the ethnic crisis.

Mr. Daniel said Mr. Pirabhakaran, who had assumed that there would not be any problem with the withdrawal of the IPKF in March 1990, had begun to worry about the possibility of Rajiv Gandhi’s return to power in 1991 as the former Indian Prime Minister had made it clear that he did not favor the demand for a separate “eel am” and stood for the unity and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.

Counsel for many of the accused had cither not gone through the plethora of supporting documents and materials or chosen to ignore them, Daniel told the court.

Referring to the doubts raised by the defence counsel with regard to reports that Pirabhakaon had been shot dead in an internecine gun battle during the IPKI operations in 1988, he said it was incorrect to say that the prosecution had not provided evidence to put the record straight. Defence counsel, while pleading for the discharge of some of the accused, had sought to make out that the LTTE intelligence wing chief, Pottu Ammar and its women’s wing leader, Akila, were creations of the investigating agency and in the absence of their existence the conspiracy charge against Pirabhakaran would not stick.

Article extracted from this publication >>  August 20, 1993

 

Article extracted from this publication >>