MADRAS: Two emissaries of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held secret meetings with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at Delhi in March 1991 as a “smoke-screen” for their “evil design” of assassinating him, ac- cording to the charge-sheet filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the killing.
Details of the charge-sheet here revealed that the two separate meetings, held within 10 days of each other and barely two months before Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Naduon May 21, were to ascertain if there was any charge in Gandhi’s altitude towards the LTTE.
The charge-sheet noted that with the announcement in March of Lok Sabha elections in May 1991, the prospect of the Congress emerging as the ruling party with Gandhi at the helm became bright. Repeated discussions in the Indian media were followed by the LTTE, it said.
Press reports of a meeting between an LTTE emissary, Kasi Ananthan and Gandhi in Delhi in March 1991, published after the killing, created a controversy.
The LTTE cited the meeting as proof that its relations with Gandhi were good and that it therefore would not have wanted him killed. A Congress spokesman said there was no record of such a meeting,
The charge-sheet said the LTTE apprehended that with Gandhi likely to become Prime Minister again, the then Government’s policy of non-interference in Sri Lankan affairs would be reversed as he stood for Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity and a role for all Tamil groups in any solution,
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