Rajiv Gandhi assassination: SC tells CBI to file status report in a month

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a status report within four weeks on the investigation conducted so far relating to the larger conspiracy behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

A bench of Justice L Nageswara Rao and Justice Hemant Gupta asked the CBI to apprise it of the probe carried out till now on the conspiracy aspect behind the making of the belt bomb that killed Gandhi and several others, and foreign involvement in the assassination.

The investigation is being carried out by the Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) -- headed by a CBI official. It also has officers from IB, RAW and Revenue Intelligence and other agencies.

The apex court was hearing a plea filed by a convict, AG Perarivalan, seeking suspension of his sentence till the CBI concluded its investigation into the conspiracy behind making of the belt bomb that killed Gandhi and others.

Perarivalan had claimed that this aspect was not being probed properly. He added that he was held guilty for supplying two nine-volt batteries which were allegedly used in the improvised explosive device (IED) that killed Gandhi while the investigation by MDMA relating to the IED was still going on.

Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991, in Tamil Nadu's Sriperumbudur town by a woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at an election rally. Fourteen others, including Dhanu herself, were also killed.

On February 18, 2014, the apex court had commuted the death sentence of Perarivalan to life imprisonment, along with two other condemned prisoners, Santhan and Murugan.