Rajiv Gandhi assassination: SC expresses unhappiness over status report of MDMA

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday expressed its displeasure over the latest status report filed by the CBI-led Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) on its probe into unravelling a larger conspiracy behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

A bench of Justices L N Rao and Hemant Gupta, after perusing the status report, said its contents were almost similar to the report filed earlier by the agency. The top court said it wanted to know about the progress made in the ongoing investigation in the past two years.

The bench posted the matter for hearing next week.

On November 5 last year, the apex court had sought within four weeks a latest status report from the MDMA on its probe into the larger conspiracy behind Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.

The MDMA, set up in 1998 on the recommendations of Justice M C Jain Commission of Inquiry which had probed the conspiracy aspect of Gandhi's assassination, is headed by a CBI official and comprises officers from IB, RAW and Revenue Intelligence and other agencies.

The bench had said the latest report should also include status of Letters Rogatory (LRs) sent to Sri Lanka, Thailand and other countries in the matter.

The top court was hearing the plea of 46-year-old A G Perarivalan, who has sought suspension of his life sentence in the case till completion of the probe by MDMA into the larger conspiracy behind the assassination. Perarivalan's counsel had earlier said his role was only limited to procuring nine-volt batteries, which were allegedly used in the improvised explosive device (IED) that had killed Gandhi.

On March 14 last year, the apex court had asked the MDMA to file a status report with regard to a LR sent to Sri Lanka for examining one of the accused,` Nixon alias Suren, who is lodged in Colombo jail.

The top court had dismissed a plea of Perarivalan seeking recall of the May 11, 1999 verdict upholding his conviction.