Swamy fined for alleging Jaya knew about Rajiv murder plan

The Delhi High Court today imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Janata Party President and former union minister Subramaniam Swamy for charging Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa with knowing about the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam's (LTTE) plan to assassinate former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at Sriperumbudur in May 1995.

The court said Swamy had failed to establish that Jayalalithaa had received information and money from the banned LTTE for the assassination of Gandhi.

"The defendant (Swamy) had exceeded the limits of qualified privilege as his statement was quite unconnected with and irrelevant to the situation and suffers from redundancy of expression," said the order.

The Centre had constituted the MC Jain Commission of Inquiry on August 23, 1991 to look into the circumstances leading to the assassination of Gandhi.

Appearing before the commission, Swamy had said Jayalalithaa was tipped by the LTTE about the assassination of Gandhi by its suicide bombers on April 17, 1991.