Template:Sri Lankan Civil War graphical timeline, Coordinates: 125737N 795643E / 12.9602N 79.9452E / 12.9602; 79.9452, Please select an option below or scan the QR code to donate The Supreme Court held that the decision to eliminate Gandhi was precipitated by his interview to Sunday magazine (2128 August 1990), where he stated that he would send the IPKF to disarm the LTTE if he returned to power. | Express Photo, Seventy-year-old Anandraj, a Dravida Kazhagam activist, in whose house at Anna Nagar in Naavalpattu, the LTTE hardcore militant Santhan committed suicide by consuming cyanide. Consider the aforementioned Rajaratnam, who went by the nom de guerre Dhanu. "Killing Rajiv Gandhi: Dhanu's sacrificial metamorphosis in death. Under TADA the accused could be convicted on the basis of evidence that would have been insufficient for conviction by an ordinary court under normal Indian law. The assassin, Kalaivani Rajaratnam, approached and greeted him. in, This page was last edited on 29 April 2023, at 18:04. Thenmozhi Rajaratnam. This week, The New York Times shed new light on that last struggle, profiling Rahila Amos, a 47-year-old Nigerian Christian woman who says she was abducted by the Islamist rebels and forced to train for a suicide attack. 5,000 Dhanu, wearing a bomb suit, denoted herself while she was bending to touch Gandhis feet. Immediately after the assassination, the Chandrasekhar government handed the investigation over to the CBI on 22 May 1991. Indeed, time and again, the female terrorists in these struggles appear highly motivated. She "regrets" the killing of the former Prime Minister and claims that the real conspirators have not been booked yet. Shift to India Gradually, the Puli Padai withered away. All the comments will be moderated by the newindianexpress.com editorial. Thirumavalavan with VCK have supported Congress under Sonia Gandhi in the past. The suicide bombing was carried out by Thenmozhi. [25] Additionally, the Rajiv Gandhi administration had antagonised other Tamil militant organisations like PLOTE for reversing the military coup in Maldives back in 1988. Seven pillars surround the site of the blast, at the, Assassination in India; Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated in bombing at campaign stop; India puts off rest of voting, Supreme Court of India, State Of Tamil Nadu Through vs Nalini And 25 Others on 11 May 1999, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "1991: Bomb kills India's former leader Rajiv Gandhi", "Assassination in India; Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated in bombing at campaign stop", "A Chance To Be Near The People New Campaigning Style Put Gandhi In Crowds", "A look back at Rajiv Gandhi assassination: Rare images from the past", "The others who died with Rajiv Gandhi: Families talk of struggle, neglect", "Remembering Rajiv Gandhi: What exactly happened on that fateful night of May 21 in Madras and New Delhi", "LTTE key suspect in Rajiv Gandhi assassination probe", "Women Power: Living with grit and painful memories", "Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and its aftermath", "Mastermind of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, Sivarasan, is a man with many names", "Rajiv Gandhi assassination: Dhanu, the first-ever human bomb in Sri Lanka's history", "Rajiv Gandhi murder: Who are the 7 convicts the TN govt wants to free?-India News, Firstpost", "Death Reference Case No. "Where words leave off, music begins!". Under TADA the accused could be convicted on the basis of evidence that would have been insufficient for conviction by an ordinary court under normal Indian law. He further said Rajiv's assassination was "well planned and done actually with Prabhakaran and (LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman). 1998-2022 Diligent Media Corporation Limited, All Rights Reserved. Immediately after the expose, CBI had withdrawn the said list and had promised to correct all the errors. Birthday: - Date of Death: May 21, 1991 Age at Death: - However, on 21 May 1991,. They do not represent the views or opinions of newindianexpress.com or its staff, nor do they represent the views or opinions of The New Indian Express Group, or any entity of, or affiliated with, The New Indian Express Group. 10,000 [35], On appeal to the Supreme Court, only four of the accused were sentenced to death and the others to various jail terms. Tucked under the bunched fabric of dresses or religious gowns, explosives are easy to conceal." I use WIKI 2 every day and almost forgot how the original Wikipedia looks like. Despite no action, the findings raised vital questions that have previously been consistently raised by political analysts. Today, the site where he was cremated is known as Veerbhumi. His funeral was broadcast live nationally and internationally, and was attended by dignitaries from over 60 countries. [49][50] In 1998, it was published in a newspaper that an interim report by the Jain commission made reference to a letter citing unverified information that Queen Aishwarya Rajya Lakshmi Devi Shah of Nepal had asked a courtier general of King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev of Nepal, "to arrange for the assassination of Shri Rajiv Gandhi(for which) Rs 10 crore would be made available. Also included in the report are said to be the drunken utterances of a policeman confirming the matter. Along the way, he was garlanded by many well-wishers, Indian National Congress workers and school children. [5][6], Rajiv Gandhi was busy election-campaigning with G.K.Moopanar in southern states of India. The court convicted and sentenced the seven persons who facilitated the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi to life imprisonment. Along the way, he was garlanded by many well-wishers, Indian National Congress workers and school children. But by all accounts they appear to be just as committed as male rebels to freeing their homeland from what they see as foreign subjugation. Thenmozhi was survived by her mother, brother Sivavarman and two sisters, one of whom moved to France.[23]. The decision was taken in Jaffna after a discussion on the re-induction of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) and a crackdown on the LTTE in Sri Lanka. But we need to be judicious while moderating your comments. She was from Kupukullai in Jaffna, and studied until middle school in Batticaloa. Do not interfere with our activities. From the Indira Gandhi International Airport, his body was sent to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi for an autopsy, reconstruction and embalming.[16]. [50][51], Months before the assassination, Vazhappady K. Ramamurthy, who served as the president of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee from 1989 to 1994, produced a letter, purportedly from the LTTE threatening to kill him and Rajiv Gandhi, who had called for a tight clamp down of the LTTE activities in Tamil Nadu. Sources have indicated that Gandhi was repeatedly informed that there was a threat to his life and that he should not travel to Tamil Nadu. After garlanding Rajiv, Rajaratnam evidently stooped to touch his feet and activated the explosive. "Killing Rajiv Gandhi: Dhanu's sacrificial metamorphosis in death. At the time, India had just ended its involvement, through the Indian Peace Keeping Force, in the Sri Lankan Civil War. thenmozhi r The disposal of waste tyres is becoming a major waste management problem in the world at the moment. [26], The judgment further cited the death of Thileepan in a hunger strike and the suicide by 12 LTTE cadres in a vessel in October 1987. Judge Wadhwa further stated there was nothing on record to show that the intention to kill Rajiv Gandhi was to overawe the government. The message conveyed to Rajiv Gandhi by both these delegations was that there was no threat to his life and that he can travel to Tamil Nadu without fearing for his life. "One soldier who has engaged with Boko Haram said he believed that fighters must drug the girls' food," notes the Times article's author, Dionne Searcey. She argued that even life convicts were released after 14 years. She then bent down to touch his feet and detonated an RDX explosive-ladenbelt tucked below her dress at exactly 10:10 PM. Thomas had said that "there were serious flaws" in the CBI's investigation, particularly related to the seizure of Rs. They are: As per the Supreme Court of India judgment, by Judge K. T. Thomas, the killing was carried out due to personal animosity of the LTTE chief Prabhakaran towards Rajiv Gandhi arising from his sending the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka and the alleged IPKF atrocities against Sri Lankan Tamils. In fact, the then governor of Tamil Nadu BhishmaNarainSingh, broke official protocol and twice warned Gandhi about the threat to his life if he visited the state. Hence it was held that it was not a terrorist act under TADA (Act). Harithra Murugan, daughter of Nalini Sriharan and Murugan interview, Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, Chandrika Kumaratunga assassination attempt, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Assassination_of_Rajiv_Gandhi&oldid=1152349203, Attacks on civilians attributed to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, People killed during the Sri Lankan Civil War, Articles with dead external links from October 2019, Articles with permanently dead external links, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in Indian English, Articles needing additional references from May 2021, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Kalaivani Rajaratnam (popularly known by her assumed names Thenmozhi Rajaratnam and Dhanu), Shivarasan alias Raghuvaran or Raghu-anna, Planning and executing the plot of the assassination, Standby to accompany the human bomb she was also the back-up bomber, K.S Mohammed Iqbal, police superintendent, Latha Kannan, Mahila Congress worker, who was with her daughter Kokilavani, Kokilavani, ten-year-old daughter of Latha Kannan, who sang a poem to, Darryl Jude Peters, attendee and observer, Munuswamy, former member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Council, Saroja Devi, seventeen-year-old college student, Pradeep K Gupta, personal security officer of Rajiv Gandhi. If you continue to interfere, your comrade Parasuraman of Ambattur who sneaked to the police about our presence there, will not be alive", In a 2011 interview, Kumaran Pathmanathan, who was the Treasurer of LTTE and its chief arms procurer, apologized to India for Velupillai Prabhakaran's "mistake" of killing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. she joined the Tamil Tigers movement in hopes of establishing the independent state of Tamil Eelam on Sri Lanka. Karthikeyan. 2,000 Evidence was gathered from charred flesh and bones found at the site of the explosion. Two other retrieved messages showed how he was in touch with Budhsinghwala about the assassination as well, and they were originally trying to find Haryanvis to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi instead of Tamils and Sikhs. In the Jain report, various people and agencies are named as suspected of having been involved in the murder of Rajiv Gandhi. A high proportion of the female bombers are in their mid- or even early teens, perhaps some of them survivors of the mass abduction of schoolgirls in the town of Chibok two years ago. 40 lakh in cash from the convicts, which led him to believe that the probe exposed "an unpardonable flaw" in the "Indian criminal justice system". [20], The interim report of Justice MilapChandJain, looking into the conspiracy angle to the assassination, indicted the DMK for colluding with the LTTE. Thenmozhi Rajaratnam Birthday and Date of Death. Gandhi, his assassin and 14 others were killed in the explosion that followed, along with 43 others who were grievously injured. Upon the intervention of Rajiv Gandhi's widow and Congress president SoniaGandhi, who petitioned for clemency for the sake of Nalini's daughter in 2000, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. She was from Kupukullai in Jaffna, and studied until middle school in Batticaloa. The fact is she had died in the explosion that killed Gandhi on May 21, 1991 in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai. In May this year, glaring errors on part of the CBI were highlighted. The party also demanded the removal of DMK from the UF government, arguing that it had played a key role in the death of Rajiv Gandhi. It's a familiar cocktail seen in the previous conflicts riven by suicide attacks. [33] Confessions given by the accused to the Superintendent of Police are taken as evidence against the accused under TADA. [3] It was carried out by 17-year-old Kalaivani Rajaratnam (popularly known by her assumed names Thenmozhi Rajaratnam and Dhanu),[1][4] a member of the SriLankanTamil separatist organization LiberationTigersofTamilEelam (LTTE). While convicting the accused, four of them to death and others to various jail terms, the judgment stated that no evidence existed that any one of the conspirators ever desired the death of any Indian other than Rajiv Gandhi, though several others were killed. The main reason why Dhanu became a Tiger is that her brother was a well-known cadre who had died and she was carrying on the family tradition. However, no action was taken on the recommendations of the commission. Thenmozhi "Gayatri" Rajaratnam more famously known as 'Dhanu' blew herself on 21 May 1991 in a suicide bombing attack to assassinate former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. [20], The interim report of Justice Milap Chand Jain, looking into the conspiracy angle to the assassination, indicted the DMK for colluding with the LTTE. Thenmozhi was survived by her mother, brother Sivavarman and two sisters, one of whom moved to France.[22]. The source code for the WIKI 2 extension is being checked by specialists of the Mozilla Foundation, Google, and Apple. [51] The interim report of the Jain Commission created a storm when it accused M. Karunanidhi the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu of a role in the assassination, leading to Congress withdrawing its support for the I. K. Gujral government and fresh elections in 1998. Nalini is a citizen of India. Karthikeyan. In fact, the then governor of Tamil Nadu Bhishma Narain Singh, broke official protocol and twice warned Gandhi about the threat to his life if he visited the state. [37] The execution of the three convicts was scheduled for 9 September 2011. Marital status of Thenmozhi at the time of her death, is not known to the general public. Reported By:| Edited By: Nikhil S Dixit |Source: DNA |Updated: Oct 04, 2011, 01:40 AM IST. Subramanian Swamy said in his book, Sri Lanka in Crisis: India's Options (2007), that an LTTE delegation had met Rajiv Gandhi on 5 March 1991. [1] He allegedly was described as Velupillai Prabhakaran's mentor; and he played a vital role in moulding the LTTE chief's thinking during the movement's formative years between 1972 and 1975. In Image: Rajiv Gandhi with Panrutti Ramachandran having talks with LTTE supremo Prabakaran | PTI, Prabhakaran (2nd from right) is seen along with other LTTE leaders in Jaffna after they announced a surrender of arms to the Indian Army under a peace accord | PTI/AP, The VP Singh-led National Front government, which came to power in 1989 was short-lived and the LTTE feared the comeback of Rajiv Gandhi. | Express Photo, Though the Indian Peace Keeping Force was not intended to get involved in major operations, but it ended up fighting large-scale military battles against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. "How to kill a person and how to bomb a house," she said. (Photo | CC-by-sa PlaneMad/Wikimedia), Now we are on Telegram too. Thenmozhi was the daughter of a Sri Lankan Tamil man named A. Rajaratnam and his second wife. Legal experts were divided. [21][22] She was inspired by the Tamil militant group LiberationTigersofTamilEelam (Tamil Tigers) at a young age, and joined the BlackTigers (suicide bombers). Among them, the cleric Chandraswami was suspected of involvement, including financing the assassination. [17] He was cremated on the banks of the river Yamuna, near the cremation spot of his mother, brother and grandfather. Their son, Manu Ranjith, married actor Vikram's daughter, Akshitha in 2017. [5][6], Rajiv Gandhi was busy election-campaigning with G.K. Moopanar in southern states of India. 500 "There is evidence to show that, during this period, some of the most vital wireless messages were passed between the LTTE operatives based in Tamil Nadu and Jaffna. Ms A. Athirai, an accused, was 17 years old when she was arrested. Thomas had said that "there were serious flaws" in the CBI's investigation, particularly related to the seizure of Rs. She argued that even life convicts were released after 14 years. If you continue to interfere, your comrade Parasuraman of Ambattur who sneaked to the police about our presence there, will not be alive", In a 2011 interview, KumaranPathmanathan, who was the Treasurer of LTTE and its chief arms procurer, apologized to India for Velupillai Prabhakaran's "mistake" of killing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. These messages, which were decoded later, are directly related to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi", the report stated. Terrorism experts insist that anyone in such an involved conspiracy is acting of her own volition. At the time, India had just ended its involvement, through the Indian Peace Keeping Force, in the Sri Lankan Civil War. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Try to avoid outside hyperlinks inside the comment. [1] It was after joining the LTTE that she came to be known by the assumed name Thenmozhi. He allegedly was described as Prabhakaran's mentor; and he played a vital role in moulding the LTTE chief's thinking during the movement's formative years between 1972 and 1975 ; Thenmozhi Rajaratnam alias Dhanu killed him during a suicide bomb blast. newindianexpress.com reserves the right to take any or all comments down at any time. The release of the six convicts came months after the Supreme Court on May 18 ordered the release of AG Perarivalan, the first of the seven convicts in the case, on grounds of poor health and good conduct. Sources have indicated that Gandhi was repeatedly informed that there was a threat to his life and that he should not travel to Tamil Nadu. The agency, while patting its own back on investigation into the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, has said Thenmozhi Rajaratnam alias Dhanu of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was sentenced to death by the trial court as well as the Supreme Court. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines. [29][30] This created a storm in India. Upon appeal, the death sentence of only four of the twenty . Hence it was held that it was not a terrorist act under TADA (Act). While convicting the accused, four of them to death and others to various jail terms, the judgment stated that no evidence existed that any one of the conspirators ever desired the death of any Indian other than Rajiv Gandhi, though several others were killed. Aditya Mehta is a writer, musician and vedic astrology researcher who also studies palmistry and numerology. Also other strong LTTE sympathizers Vaiko with MDMK and Thol. Thenmozhi was survived by her mother, brother Sivavarman and two sisters, one of whom moved to France.[22]. [23] Thenmozhi was the daughter of a Sri Lankan Tamil man named A. Rajaratnam[22] and his second wife. Vaiko left the UPA alliance before the 2009election, partly due to the Sri Lankan issue. The report also alleged that LTTE leaders in Jaffna were in possession of sensitive coded messages exchanged between the Union government and the state government of DMK. ", - Sewa Dass Singh, Phiruman Akali Dal leader (1992), The assassination was carried out by Kalaivani Rajaratnam (popularly known by her assumed names Thenmozhi Rajaratnam and Dhanu). [5][6], Rajiv Gandhi was busy election-campaigning with G.K. Moopanar in southern states of India. Last Updated: 21st May 2020 11:22 AM. [7] When Rajiv reached a campaign rally in Sriperumbudur, he left his car and began walking towards the dais where he was to deliver a speech. An LTTE activist named Thenmozhi Rajaratnam detonated an RDX-laden suicide belt while greeting Rajiv at a function. | Express Photo, Samdani Begam with Rajiv Gandhi moments before the assassination at Sriperumbudur. [8] Gandhi, his assassin and 14 others were killed in the explosion that followed, along with 43 others who were grievously injured. She argued that even life convicts were released after 14 years. Dr Jagjit Singh Chohan had helped with logistical and tactical support to the Tamil Tigers. Disclaimer : We respect your thoughts and views! [1], Apart from the suicide bomber Kalaivani Rajaratnam, several people were killed in the blast on 21 May 1991:[1][10][11], Around forty-three bystanders including police sub-inspector Anushiya Daisy were also injured in the explosion.[13]. [35][36] The President of India rejected the clemency pleas of Murugan and two others on death row, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan and A G Perarivalan alias Arivu in August 2011. IN NEWSI. Rajiv Gandhi Memorial path, this was the path that Gandhi took before being assassinated.
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