A group photograph purporting to show former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha standing next to Dhanu, the assassin of Rajiv Gandhi, with the one-eyed Sivarasan, the mastermind, also in the picture, created a furore in the state Assembly yesterday.
Agitated Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) members, many of them holding copies of two dailies and a weekly, which published the group photograph yesterday morning, demanded a fresh investigation into Gandhis assassination, based on the photograph.
Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said the state government would investigate the matter and inform the Centre about the conclusion. At a time when the trial was going on in the designated court and the Jain commission proceedings were at an advanced stage, the publication of the photograph was a turning point, he said.
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However, A Thirunav-ukkarasu, the AIADMK floor leader, identified the person stated to be the human bomb Dhanu as Dakshayani, an advocate practising at Hosur. The Hosur Janata Dal MLA, B Venkatasamy, confirmed that he knew Dakshayani personally. The bespectacled person in the picture, stated to be Sivarasan, was Vijayakumar, also an advocate, he said.
Earlier, when the house met, C Gnanasekaran (TMC) raised the issue and wondered how the crucial photograph had escaped the probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT).
He recalled that Jayalalitha, despite having an election alliance with the Congress then, had not participated in the ill-fated public meeting at Sripedrumbudur on May 21, 1991.
Alleging that those who had aided the assassins were still moving around scot-free, he demanded that the culprits be brought to book even if one of them happened to be a former Chief Minister.
K Subbarayan (CPI) said the emergence of the photograph after seven years showed the investigative agency in a poor light.
The state should make it clear to the Centre that the mystry knot should be untied. It should find out whether the photograph was suppressed or brushed aside.
Some of the questions that required answers were: who took Dhanu to Jayalalitha, did she know the would-be assassin beforehand and how did Dhanu manage to get herself photographed in such proximity with the AIADMK leader, Subbarayan said.
Thirunavukkarasu, who did not appear unduly pertubed over the allegation, said it should be first established whether or not the photograph was a forgery. While it was stated that it dated back to 1990, he recalled that he had been expelled from the AIADMK on July 12 that year.
(The captions accompanying the press photograph identified Thirunavukkarasu himself, former minister H V Hande, R Soundarajan, and former MLA Pappa Subramanian among others in the group). Thirunavukkarasu said even if the persons were really Dhanu and Sivarasan, it was a common practice for leaders to let themselves photographed with all and sundry. In fact, there had been reports that photographs of former Congress MP, Maragatham Chandrasekar, and former MLA, Latha Priyakumar, with Dhanu were available, but the AIADK had never sought to link them with the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, he said.
Taking exception to TMC members like Kumaradas and Gnanasekaran speaking as though the photograph had already established Jayalalithas involvement, Thirunavukkarasu said not every woman wearing a churidar could be called Dhanu and not every man who appeared to have an eye defect could be called Sivarasan, the one-eyed jack. All these facts could be verified either by the state police or the SIT and his party was in favour of a thorough investigation in this regard, he said.
He then proceeded to identify those in the photograph as either AIADMK functionaries from Dharmapuri district or advocates. The occasion appeared to be the formal joining of a group of of lawyers from the area in the AIADMK in Jayalalithas presence, he said.
Sharp allegation by Kumaradas was expunged by speaker P T R Palanivel Rajan, after Karunanidhi had given his views. Karunanidhi recalled that the DMK had been blamed for the assassination, but there were several grounds for suspecting the AIADMK too. For instance, Jayalalitha, in the aftermath of the murder of EPRLF leader K Padmanabha in Chennai (in June 1990) had reiterated her support to the LTTE and criticised the then DMK regime for not aiding the LTTE.
It was then a matter of amazement that not a single AIADMK candidate or functionary received Rajiv Gandhi at the airport here on the evening on May 21, even though he was to campaign for the alliance. After the assassination, not a single AIADMK leader turned up at the airport to pay homage to the mortal remains of Rajiv Gandhi before they were taken to New Delhi, he said.
However, Karunanidhi said, it would be too much to suspect the actual involvement of Jayalalitha in the assassination plot. Yet,it was open to TMC MLAs to voice their suspicion after such a photograph had suddenly emerged now.
Opposition leader S Balakrishnan, opposing the expunction of the TMCs charge against Jayalalitha, said any member had the right to voice his grave suspicion. As early as in 1992, when Jayalalitha claimed at the AIADMK Madurai conference that she had come to power not because of Rajiv gandhi shedding his blood, but because of her own personal charisma, the Congress has started nurturing some suspicion about Jayalalitha, he said.
Jaya flays newspapers
Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary Jayalalitha yesterday came down heavily on newspapers which published a group photograph.
She said she was ready for a CBI enquiry into the whole issue .
The girl stated to be Dhanu and standing next to me is a Hosur woman advocate by the name Dakshayini and the bespectabled man, described in the photograph as Sivarasan, is Hosur advocate Nanjai Gowdar.
The photograph must have been taken around February 1988, as one of the persons, Kudavasal Pappa Subramaniam, seen in the photograph had been expelled from the AIADMK in 1988, she said.
Jayalalitha said she would not tolerate the nonsense of the newspapers any more and they would have to answer to her. I am going to file a defamation suit against these newspapers which are bent upon tarnishing my image beyond limits.
I will put an end to the atrocities being perpetrated by these newspapers with the sole aim of driving me out of politics, she said.