NEW DELHI :The famed duo Shankar-Ganesh music party was called by Congress-I leader Margatham Chandra Shekhar to ‘Sriperumbudur in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu without Prior permission of the police ,the Verma commission of inquiry Probing the assassination of late Indian premier Rajiv Gandhi was told Sunday,
Taking part in the cross-examination, inspector general of police RK Raghavan said, “Had we known about the arrival of music party, we would have erected a separate dias for its performance,”
Raghavan said police had to allow the music party’s van under pressure from the organizers as the party was about to return after police refused entry,
He said Margatham had contacted the music party on the morning of May 21, and compelled the duo to come to the venue though initially they had refused to come. .
Surman Dubey, Rajiv Gandhi’s aide and Jayanti Natarajan, were the last witnesses to be crossed-examined before the commission adjourned its proceeding to March 30 for the attorney- general to resume his arguments.
According to Raghavan, the factors which led to the appalling ‘conditions included short notice of the program, lack of details and frequent changes in the program, over-ruling of police advice by ‘organizers and lack of cooperation from the organizers.
I am still baffled at the announcement of AJ. Doss saying that Rajiv Gandhi would be arriving soon and those who wanted to ‘garland him should assemble he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 27, 1992
