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Journalism of Courage
CHENNAI, Nov 5: The long-awaited final judgement in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case will be delivered by the trial court at Poonamallee near here on January 28, 1998.
The presiding judge of the designated court, V Navaneetham, today reserved his verdict on the fate of the 26 persons charged with plotting and executing the May 21, 1991, assassination of the former prime minister at Sriperumbudur at an election rally.
The judge, who took over from S M Sidickk earlier this year, heard prolonged arguments on behalf of the Special Investigation Team of the CBI and the defence lawyers for the last few weeks, before fixing the date for the final order.
Sidickk, who presided over the TADA court for five years, has been elevated to the High Court. Besides disposing of a number of bail pleas and other interlocutory petitions by the accused, he also recorded the bulk of the evidence given by an array of prosecution witnesses.
Navaneetham recorded the depositions of the last few witnesses, besides hearing the final arguments.
The trial went on against the 26 accused, even though the CBI had cited 43 persons, including LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, in the chargesheet filed in May 1992.
While Prabhakaran, then LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman and women’s wing deputy chief Akhila were declared proclaimed offenders, the remaining accused are dead. The case against these absconders’ has been split and is pending the outcome of extradition proceedings in Sri Lanka.
The SIT has produced oral, material and documentary evidence in support of its case that the LTTE leadership had planned the assassination for a long time and sent a team in mid-1990 to plan and executive the final stage of the plot.
