The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.

htm

The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon

Part 26

Sachi Sri Kantha

[8 December 2001]

Rajiv Gandhi Assassination: The Forensic

Science Angle

A ‘Hexagonal Rashomon’
The Rajiv Gandhi assassination is a story within a story in the Pirabhakaran
Phenomenon. All the complex details have not come to the surface even
after a lapse of 10 years. However, if I short-circuit it, the Pirabhakaran story
would be incomplete, since Pirabhakaran was framed as the first accused in
the charge sheet produced by the SIT in May 1992 and later his status was
designated as an ‘absconding accused’.

I view the Rajiv Gandhi assassination as a ‘hexagonal Rashomon’. In the

original Rashomon story of Akutagawa, popularized by movie director
Kurosawa, there was a murder of a man and a rape of a woman [see, The
Pirabhakaran Phenomenon – part 9]. In the Rajiv Gandhi event of May 21st
1991, there was a murder of a leading man (coupled with 16 other tragic
deaths) and a suicide by a woman. The assassination of John F.Kennedy
(hereafter abbreviated as JFK), which I take as a control case to analyze the
Rajiv assassination, cannot match the complexity of Rajiv assassination,
since the November 22nd 1963 event was only a murder of a leading man.
The complexity in JFK case appeared on November 24, 1963, when the
second murder (that of assassin) was committed.

The parallels between JFK and Rajiv assassinations are striking, if one
equates USA and Cuba to India and Sri Lanka respectively. USA has had a
troubling relationship with Cuba prior to JFK’s death, and the executive arm
of USA had tried to assassinate the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, through its
Intelligence agency CIA. India also experienced a troubling relationship with
Sri Lanka prior to Rajiv’s death, and the executive arm of India had tried to
‘neutralize’ the Eelam Tamil leader Pirabhakaran, through its Intelligence
agency RAW. Two additional features related to the puzzle of May 21,
1991 event deserve emphasis, which do not have parallels with the JFK
assassination. First one being, apart from Pirabhakaran, mutual antagonism

1 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

of Rajiv and the then Sri Lankan Sinhalese leader Premadasa was a
complicating factor in solving the Rajiv assassination case. Secondly, unlike
JFK, Rajiv did survive a humiliating assassination attempt by a Sinhalese
naval rating in Colombo four years before his tragic death.

Benzene analogy
I like to portray the Rajiv assassination as a ‘hexagonal Rashomon’, with six
angles. These are namely, forensic science angle, political angle, judiciary
angle, espionage angle, Eelam Tamil angle and Sinhalese angle. From our
lessons in high school chemistry, one can note that benzene is the optimal
example of the hexagon structure. Thus, the benzene analogy is apt here as
well. The six carbons of the benzene ring are linked with three double bonds
and three single bonds and exist in a resonating form. Similarly, the six
angles of the Rajiv assassination event can also be visualized as existing in a
double bond – single bond combination with each other. In the benzene
ring, it is not possible to point out which carbon is the leading carbon or for
that matter, one cannot de-link a carbon from the others without
destabilizing the entire structure. The alternating double bonds and single
bonds in the hexagonal ring of benzene also applies well to the six angles of
the Rajiv assassination. However, the Indian operatives in law enforcement
and judiciary, for reasons of convenience and for covering their lapses as
well as saving their butts, focused only on the LTTE angle. In this segment, I
focus on the forensic science angle of the assassination and cover the other
angles in the forthcoming segments.

Two Books
As of now, two books in English have appeared in India, which covers the
Rajiv assassination as their main themes. There may be a couple of others,
which were published in early 1990s in haste by hucksters to make a ‘quick
buck’. These ‘quickies’ are not worth intense scrutiny, since they were
published before the results of judicial inquiry. Thus, I would focus my
attention on the following two books.

1. Beyond the Tigers: Tracking Rajiv Gandhi’s Assassination, by

Rajeev Sharma (Kaveri Books, New Delhi, 1998, 278 pages).
2. The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi: Unanswered Questions and
Unasked Queries, by Subramanian Swamy (Konark Publishers, New
Delhi, 2000, 317 pages).

Both books peddle their own spins. The first one was authored by a
journalist, with probable sponsorship (factual and/or financial) from the
Indian intelligence operatives. The foreword to this book was written by
Raja Vijay Karan, who was the Director of CBI, during the time of Rajiv’s

2 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

death. The second one was ‘authored’ by one of the political light-weights
and egotistical-loudmouths in India, who presumably delivered this book to
save his butt. Swamy was the Minister of Law and Commerce in the
lame-duck Cabinet of Chandrasekhar, at the time of Rajiv’s death. Thus,
both books deserve scrutiny for the information they provide, and in my
opinion, both are complimentary in their focus.

The prosecution witnesses

When the Rajiv Gandhi assassination trial began, not much detail was
known to the public about the prosecution witnesses. As one who was
interested in the forensic science angle of the assassination, I had to wait till
1999 to find out the medical personnel who conducted the postmortem
examinations of the victims. It was reported in the Indian news media that a
total of 288 prosecution witnesses were presented. Among these, only 144
receive citation in the judgements delivered by Justice Wadhwa and Justice
Thomas. From the Supreme Court verdicts delivered by Justices
D.P.Wadhwa and K.T.Thomas on May 11, 1999, I compiled the names and
annotations of these 144 prosecution witnesses. Justice Quadri did not cite a
single witness in his brief judgement.

I’m not sure that until now, whether anyone else had taken the trouble to
compile this detailed list, though I felt that, considering the ‘secrecy
component’ attached to this assassination trail during its ‘Designation Court
phase in Chennai’, it was worth an effort. I provide below the list of
prosecution witnesses I had compiled. The abbreviation PW stands for
‘prosecution witness’. The list is in increasing numeral order. Missing
numbers denote that those witnesses did not receive any citation in the
judgement.
PW-18 C.S.Ganesh, Music Director
PW-19 D.Lakshmi Albert, Congress Party member & eyewitness on May
21, 1991
PW-20 Dr.Ramadevi, Congress Party member & eyewitness on May 21,
1991
PW-22 Sathyamoorthy, painter
PW-23 Bharathi, nurse & sister of Bhagyanathan (20th accused)
PW-27 Shanmugam, Congress Party member
PW-29 Maragatham Chandrasekhar, Congress Party MP for
Sriperumpudur
PW-32 Anusuya, Sub Inspector of Police, Security, on duty at the
Sriperumbudur meeting venue on May 21, 1991
PW-34 Sundararajan Murali

3 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

PW-35 Subramaniyan
PW-52 V.Thiagarajan, Superintendent of Police, CBI
PW-54 T.Soundara Pandian, worker at Ebenezer Stores, and employee of
M.Utham Singh (PW-56)
PW-56 M.Utham Singh, property agent and proprietor of Ebenezer Stores
PW-57 K.Thiagarajan
PW-58 S.Kalyan Krishnan, owner of Easwari Lodge
PW-59 S.Raghu, of Studio Memory Makers, St.Thomas Mount, Madras
PW-60 V.Kantha Raja @ Chokan, house owner and LTTE sympathizer
PW-61 T.Panneer Selvam, Kavitha Driving School
PW-62 P.Thirumathi Vimala, teacher
PW-63 K.Kottammal, employee of Tamil Nadu State Electricity Board &
owner of No.153, Muthamil Nagar, Kodungaiyur, Madras
PW-65 Mridula, a teacher & wife of Ranganath (26th accused)
PW-67 L.D.N.J.Wijesinghe, Senior Superintendent of Police, Sri Lanka,
& interceptor of LTTE wireless transmissions
PW-70 Sowmya Narayanan, staff member of Telecom Department
PW-71 M.Janarthanam
PW-72 T.Ramamurthy, journalist
PW-73 Devasena Raj, colleague of Padma (21st accused)
PW-74 Meena, wife of T.Ramamurthy (PW-72)
PW-75 N.Vasantha Kumar, artist who compiled the two volumes of
‘Satanic Forces’ for LTTE
PW-77 Sankaran @ Gnani, journalist
PW-78 T.P.Sitther, wireless operator, Ministry of Home Affairs,
Government of India
PW-81 Manivannan, videographer who made the tape of May 8, 1991
meeting addressed by V.P.Singh
PW-82 J.Duraisamy Naidu, owner of No.12, Eveready Colony,
Kodungaiyur, Madras
PW-84 S.Mani, wireless decoder
PW-85 D.J.Swaminathan, neighbor of Jayakumar (10th accused) at
Kodungaiyur
PW-86 M.Mariappan, houseworker of Shanmugham (diseased accused),

4 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

Kodiakkarai
PW-88 Delip Chordia, dealer at International Tyre Service, Mount Road,
Madras
PW-90 Rani, neighbor of Nalini (1st accused)
PW-91 N.Moideen, salesman at Hindustan Training Co., Royapettah High
Road, Madras
PW-93 I.Suyambu, news correspondent & eyewitness of May 8, 1991
meeting addressed by V.P.Singh
PW-94 A.K.Anbalagan, salesman at Poompuhar Handicrafts [Tamil Nadu
Govt. Sales Outlet], Madras
PW-95 R.Ravichandran, salesman at a showroom
PW-96 N.Sujaya Narayan, colleague of Nalini at Anabond Silicons
Pvt.Ltd., Madras
PW-97 N.Chokkanathan, a distant relative of Bhaskaran (14th Accused)
PW-98 Hashmuth S.Setal, owner of Barathi Cycle Company
PW-99 Esylen Mantel, of Plot No.14, Eveready Colony, Kodungaiyur.
PW-100 A.Ravindra Reddy, Manager, Komala Vilas Lodge
PW-102 P.Veerappan, a travel agent for passports & renewal of old
passports & visas
PW-104 S.Vaidyanathan, a clerk at Sriram Travels
PW-106 Y.R.Nagarajan, receptionist at Golden Lodge, Jaipur
PW-107 Ramasamy, car driver
PW-108 S.Santhana Krishnan, a friend of Hari Babu (deceased accused)
PW-109 Jayakumari, a Sri Lankan national who arrived in India in 1986
through ‘proper channel’
PW-111 Vijayendran, cinema actor
PW-114 C.Vamadevan, a Sri Lankan travel agent
PW-115 R.Ravi Srinivasan, a friend of Nalini (1st Accused)
PW-116 M.Girija Vallabhan
PW-117 R.Shankar, proprietor of Sriram Travels
PW-120 V.T.Sundaramani, father of Hari Babu (deceased accused)
PW-121 Dr.Cecelia Cyril, medical officer who conducted postmortem of
victims and examined the injured
PW-124 Dr.M.N.Damodaran, medical officer who conducted postmortem

5 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

of victims and examined the injured

PW-127 Dr.Jishnu Mohan, medical officer who conducted postmortem of
victims and examined the injured
PW-128 Arulmani
PW-129 Dr.N.Ramasamy, medical officer who conducted postmortem of
victims and examined the injured
PW-130 Dr.B.Santhakumar, medical officer who conducted postmortem
of victims and examined the injured
PW-132 Sasikala, teacher
PW-133 Karpagam, relative of Suseendran (17th Accused) and wife of
D.Shanmugasundaram (PW-208)
PW-134 Dr.Veerapandian, medical officer who conducted postmortem of
victims and examined the injured
PW-146 Dr.T.S.Koshy, medical officer who conducted postmortem of
victims and examined the injured
PW-147 Dr.Amrit Patnaik, medical officer who conducted the
postmortem on the dead body of suicide assassin Dhanu
PW-149 Latha
PW-150 Dr.Raja Venkatesh, medical officer who conducted postmortem
of victims and examined the injured
PW-151 K.Ravi Shankar, photo studio owner (owner of Hari Babu’s
Chinon camera)
PW-153 V.P.Raghunathan, manager of Union Motors, Salem
PW-155 Dr.Kanagaraj, medical officer who conducted postmortem of
victims and examined the injured
PW-157 Lt.Col. Manik Sabharwal, bomb expert
PW-162 Dr.A.Srinivasan, medical officer who conducted postmortem of
victims and examined the injured
PW-163 Dr.E.V.Yuvaraj, medical officer who conducted postmortem of
victims and examined the injured
PW-165 Dr.Ponnusamy, medical officer who conducted postmortem of
victims and examined the injured
PW-166 Dr.Poongothai, medical officer who conducted postmortem of
victims and examined the injured
PW-168 S.V.Krishnan, Sundaram Finance Ltd.
PW-169 Dr.Saraswathi, medical officer who conducted postmortem of

6 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

victims and examined the injured

PW-171 S.Sundari, girlfriend of Hari Babu (deceased accused)
PW-172 P.V.Francis, Commander in Indian Navy
PW-178 A.Nageswara Rao, house owner of No.13, Park Avenue, Velan
Nagar Extn., Alwarthirunagar, Madras
PW-179 M.Gunathilal Soni, manager of retail textile shop ‘Queen
Corner’, Puruswakkom, where a chooridar (orange and green
color) was sold on May 11, 1991
PW-182 Dr.Ramesh Kumar, medical officer who conducted postmortem
of victims and examined the injured
PW-183 K.Varadarajan, auto-rickshaw driver at Thiruvallur
PW-185 P.G.Abeykoon Bandara, Deputy Controller, Dept.of Immigration
and Emigration, Sri Lanka
PW-186 Brigadier Vivek Sapatnekar, IPKF Operations, Sri Lanka
PW-187 P.S.Padmanaban, a student of Madras Institute of Engineering
Technology
PW-189 Gajalakshmi
PW-194 Dr.R.Kuppusamy
PW-195 R.Nagarajan, Congress Party member in Thiruvallur
PW-196 Ramkumar, partner of Krishna Hotel, New Delhi
PW-197 Dr.Claud Fernandez, dentist whose clinic was visited by
Murugan (3rd accused) and Robert Payas (9th accused)
PW-198 P.Ramalingam, brother in law of Hari Babu (deceased accused)
and son in law of Sundaramani (PW-120)
PW-199 V.Kannan
PW-200 S.Meera
PW-203 S.Chinnamani, a salesman at Metro Square, Pondy Bazaar,
Madras
PW-205 A.Parimalam, elder sister of Hari Babu (deceased accused)
PW-206 Lokamatha, aunt of Ravichandran (16th Accused)
PW-208 Shanmugham Sundaram, husband of Karpagam (PW-133)
PW-210 M.Sankari, house owner and sister of Muthuraja (an LTTE
activist)
PW-211 K.Jagannathan
PW-213 K.Periasami, a Dravida Kazhagam activist

7 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

PW-214 M.Chandra, a maid in the neighborhood of Kalyani Nursing

Home
PW-215 Chamundeeswari, a resident of Sriperumpudur
PW-217 unnamed husband of PW-206
PW-218 E.Aanjanappa, owner of house in Puttan Halli
PW-222 K.N.Mohan, car mechanic & owner of motor garage, Bangalore
PW-223 R.Rajan
PW-226 R.Janaki
PW-227 K.Premkumar, a friend of Ranganath (26th accused)
PW-229 R.Jayashankar
PW-230 R.Selvaraj, driver of tanker lorry on June 27, 1991, from Mettur
to Madras
PW-231 V.Radhakrishnan, Customs Dept, State Government (Tamil
Nadu) & a friend of Arivu (18th accused)
PW-232 S.Syed Ibrahim, insurance surveyor
PW-233 K.Bharathi, nurse
PW-234 Mangaleswaran, in charge of Rameshwaram refugee camp
PW-235 Rose D.Nayagam, in charge of Tuticorin refugee camp
PW-236 R.D.Kalia, Police Inspector
PW-239 P.P.S.Dhillon, Flight Commander of the Helicopter Unit, Port
Blair
PW-242 Kasi Anandhan, member of the Central Committee of LTTE
PW-243 Dr.L.Thirunavukkarasu, medical officer who conducted
postmortem on the deceased accused, who committed suicide
PW-244 Dr.S.Rajendran, medical officer who conducted postmortem on
the deceased accused, who committed suicide
PW-245 S.Vasudevan, cashier at petrol pump
PW-246 Dr.S.Maghivanan, medical officer who conducted postmortem
on the deceased accused, who committed suicide
PW-247 Dr.T.Sankughavel Samy, medical officer who conducted
postmortem on the deceased accused, who committed suicide
PW-252 Dr.G.J.Srinivasan, Assistant Director, Tamil Nadu Forensic
Science Laboratory, Madras, and owner of No.26, Sabari Nagar
Extn., Porur, Madras
PW-254 Mohanraj, wireless expert & Officer in Charge of International

8 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

Monitoring Station, Perungudi, Madras

PW-255 Aveek Sarkar, journalist who interviewed Rajiv Gandhi on July
30-31, 1990, for the interview which appeared in the Sunday
magazine Aug.12-19, 1990.
PW-256 A.Selvaraj
PW-258 Vazhapadi K. Ramamurthi, President Tamil Nadu Congress
Committee, & later Thamilzhaga Rajiv Congress
PW-260 Nagarathinam, attending laundry business in Kodiakkarai
PW-262 K.Ramakrishnan, handwriting expert
PW-266 Venkateswaran, Investigating Officer
PW-267 Ch.Gandhi, handwriting expert, who checked the handwriting of
Sivarasan (deceased accused)
PW-271 P.P.Chandrsekara Nair
PW-273 K.S.Madhavan, Sub Inspector of Police, Tamil Nadu State
Police
PW-280 Dr.P.Chandrasekaran, Director, Tamil Nadu Forensic Science
Laboratory, Madras
PW-281 M.Narayanan, Deputy Superintendent of Police, CBI (one of the
Investigating Officers)
PW-282 Velliapandi, Inspector, CBI
PW-285 R.Sivaji, Superintendent of Police, who arrested Santhan (2nd
accused)
PW-288 K.Raghothaman, DSP, CBI, SIT, Chief Investigating Officer

Absence of a single research communication on the assassination

To the students of forensic science, the absence of a single research
communication on Rajiv Gandhi assassination, in the public domain after a
lapse of ten years is a real handicap. In comparison, the control case of John
F.Kennedy assassination (see, The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon – part 25), by
1974, had generated over 10 research papers at the end of the first ten-year
period. My source of reference is the Medline database, maintained by the
National Library of Medicine of USA. As of now, over 35 research papers
have appeared on the JFK assassination.

Among the 288 prosecution witnesses, 19 medical doctors (PW-121,

PW-124, PW 127, PW-129, PW-130, PW-134, PW-146, PW-147, PW-150,
PW-155, PW-163, PW-165, PW-166, PW-169, PW-182, PW-243, PW-244,

9 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

PW-246 and PW-247) have been identified as those who carried out the
postmortem examinations of the victims, injured persons and alleged
assassin (Dhanu) and deceased accused (Hari Babu) and on May 21, 1991
and deceased accused (Sivarasan, Subha and five other accomplices) on
August 20, 1991. Dr.P.Chandra Sekharan, the then director of Tamil Nadu
Forensic Science Laboratory was identified as PW-280. One wonders why
not even one of these 20 qualified personnel in India who were at the proper
place at proper time have not bothered to present the forensic evidence to
their professional colleagues in an appropriate professional journal.

From my search, I have gathered ‘bits and pieces’ of forensic details, only
from the interviews granted by Dr.P.Chandra Sekharan to the Indian news
media. Thus, I wish to quote some details, available from his two interviews:
(1) Rediff on the Net (website) of October 14, 1999, and (2) The Hindu
Opportunities (hinduonnet website) of November 22, 2000.

Postmortem details of Dhanu and Rajiv Gandhi

In his October 14, 1999 interview, Dr.Chandra Sekharan had stated,
“…I tried to go that night itself, but could not because of the road
blocks and the riots taking place all over the city. When I reached the
scene in the morning, the police had cordoned it off.

…When I inspected all the 18 bodies including Rajiv Gandhi’s – 17

bodies had been identified – there was one which was just an
assembling of dismembered parts. From the hair and smooth skin, the
absence of body hair, it was obvious that it was a female. I even
correlated minor details like the same nail polish on finger and
toenails. Only the head, the left forearm and two lower limbs were
there, including some torn portions. The entire right hand and trunk of
the body were missing. That gave me a clue that this was a woman who
was a human bomb.

When we searched further, I found pieces of a denim vest with Velcro

fastenings. This gave me an indication that the bomb might have been
carried in an abdominal belt. You see, when I had been in England for
a month on a case some time before, I had bought a similar vest with a
Velcro fastening. The final conclusion was a belt-bomb carried by a
woman.
This was confirmed by the photographs taken immediately after the
blast. The bodies were all lying in a geometrical fashion or in lotus
petal arrangement, all the feet pointing towards the centre. Normally,
when human beings are knocked about above their centre of gravity,
say in the chest, they fall flat. All the people standing around Rajiv had
fallen around in a circle, so I concluded that the explosion occurred at

10 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

a height of about three-and-a-half feet above the ground level.

Further examination revealed that the woman’s face was intact, so that
anyone who had known her would be able to recognize her. But her
scalp was avulsed, that is the fleshy portion of the back of the head was
stripped off, exposing her skull neatly. This indicated that the
explosives were worn on the back of her belt only. If they had been all
around her waist, then the tangential force would have also stripped off
her face beyond recognition…
In our country, it is common that if someone bends suddenly to touch
your feet, you will reflexively try to stop them from doing so. This is
what Rajiv was doing, so his face was exactly above her back and was
completely blown off. His frontal face bones were thrown 100 metres
away. His body was cremated without frontal face bones. His back was
intact.
By studying these injuries, I was able to put up real live models and
determine the position in which she was bending over, and how he was
positioned over her. It took me just over 24 hours to draw these
conclusions…”

The miraculous camera and its film

In the same interview, Dr.Chandra Sekharan had stated,
“I was in charge of this whole crime scene until the CBI came in, so the
film from [photographer] Haribabu’s camera [who died in the blast]
was developed in my laboratory. As soon as I saw photographs of this
woman in a green dress in the pictures, I was able to say conclusively
that this was the lady who had been the human bomb. It was not for
me to find out who she was or whom she represented, but the
identification of Dhanu and Sivarasan definitely helped the police to
start solving the conspiracy angle of the crime.

It took me six months to produce a full crime scene reconstruction

document. I used many photographs taken by press photographers just
before and immediately after the crime.”

On the miraculous Chinon camera and the film prints which recorded
Rajiv’s final moments, I entertain some doubts. I repeat, some doubts,
though I do not question the authenticity of the reported facts. I cite two
passages from Rajeev Sharma’s book, related to the Chinon camera and the
film.

First passage: [not corrected for grammatical errors]

“As everybody, including the hit squad members fled after the blast,
nobody noticed Haribabu’s camera. It lay on the photographer chest

11 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

for quite some before a Tamil Nadu police officer, Raghavan, chanced
upon it. Raghavan immediately opened the camera took out the reel
and handed it over to a policeman to get it developed without any
delay… Haribabu’s photos exposed the LTTE on May 24 when
Dhanu’s photograph was published by The Hindu. Next day, other
newspapers published another photograph, showing Dhanu holding a
garland. By now, Dhanu was the suspected suicide bomber.” [Book:
Beyond the Tigers, p.25]

Second passage:
“The official count of the injured persons went up to 22 two days after
the explosion when Jayabalan, an amateur photographer, got himself
admitted to a city hospital. He later told the SIT he remembered having
clicked just before the explosion.
‘I saw Haribabu, another photographer, surrounded by several women.
I also tried the same method from behind Haribabu and clicked once.
The next moment the blast occurred. I felt a severe shock and thought
for a second that there was an electric short circuit. Then something hit
my leg.’
As Jayabalan bolted, he was hit again, this time on the back of his
head. Blood started oozing out. ‘I cried for help and two policemen
standing by the dais came forward. But as they saw a body of a police
inspector, they rushed towards him’, he was quoted in the media as
saying. He reached home on his own. After two days when the city
became calm, Jayabalan handed over the camera with the film roll and
his stained clothes to the DIG at the police headquarters. He had
clicked at least eight frames. The unprocessed film he returned to the
police contained the very last moments of Rajiv’s life.” [ibid,
pp.37-38]

The reported observations of photographer Jayabalan is interesting in that

they tell the last moments of deceased accused Haribabu, the photographer.
The Indian press had immediately published the photos said to be developed
from the purported film obtained from Haribabu’s camera by police officer
Raghavan. One of the penultimate prints showed the backside of alleged
assassin Dhanu’s head (with flowers), with Rajiv’s face towards the camera.
That would reveal that Haribabu was behind Dhanu. According to
Jayabalan, Haribabu was “standing on his toes and holding his camera over
his head to get pictures of Rajiv Gandhi” and that his camera was ‘lying on
his chest’ when it was picked up by police officer Raghavan.

The explosive found in the belt bomb

According to Dr.Chandra Sekharan,

12 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

“We also determined that the explosive used was RDX, that is, the
research and development explosive developed in American
laboratories for military use. It is a semisolid explosive that is like
chappati dough and can be moulded to any shape. It is very dangerous,
but does not ignite until you heat it to 197 degrees. It explodes at a
detonating force of 29,000 feet per second and burns in one by
ten-thousandth of second. The instantaneous burning makes it detonate
at a very high velocity. It does not need any kind of shell or covering
like a grenade.

The people who made this belt-bomb had embedded it with 2 mm steel
pellets, roughly about 10,000 (we recovered about 6,000, and many
are still living with these pellets embedded in them) in number. The
idea of these pellets was that they would fly at a velocity of 29,000 feet
per second in all directions, and add to the damage done. So many
pellets were recovered from Rajiv’s body during the post-mortem and
are in the museum in Delhi now…”

The outcome of forensic investigation

Dr.Chandra Sekharan in his November 2000 interview had observed:

“…In the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, I was handling the entire
crime scene examination from the beginning. I reconstructed the scene
of the blast with all the minute details and submitted a 100-page report
with nearly 100 illustrations and photographs to CBI and the Verma
Commission.”

Few queries
I summarise the observations made by Dr.Chandra Sekharan and my queries
as follows:
Fact 1: Following impact with the belt bomb, Rajiv Gandhi’s frontal face
bones were thrown 100 meters away. [That is a pretty long distance,
almost covering the two goal posts of a football arena!]
Fact 2: The explosive used in the belt bomb had a detonating force of
29,000 feet per second.

Fact 3: All those who were within the 3 meter radius of the center of
explosion had died, including the freelance photographer Hari Babu,
who was holding the Chinon camera above his head to click at
Rajiv.

Query 1: But Hari Babu’s Chinon camera lying in his chest did not suffer
any damage. The film inside the camera did not suffer any exposure

13 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

damage and the ten frames shot before the explosion were retrieved.
A miracle indeed, considering that the Chinon camera used by Hari
Babu was also held within the 3 meter radius, and that it (with all
certainty) was not protected with a hard outer layer made up of lead
or some damage resistant material.
Fact 4: It took six months for him to produce a full crime scene
reconstruction document. This could be interpreted as that, from
May 21, 1991 to end of November 1991, the complete details on
the identity and the activity of the alleged assassin Dhanu was not
reconstructed in full.
Query 2: If so, on what basis, the SIT personnel and the Indian press
released information on Dhanu’s identity and her links to LTTE
within days of the assassination (see, for example the above-cited
first passage of Rajeev Sharma’s book) and before November 1991?
Query 3: Did Dr. Chandra Sekharan carry out a confirmatory ‘blast-damage’
experiment, using the same explosive and dummy targets (within the
3 meter radius from the center of explosion) to see whether the
Chinon camera worn by the freelance photographer could not suffer
any damage during the blast and that the film contained in the
camera would not be exposed? If so, where did he carry out such an
experiment?
Fact 5: Dr. Chandra Sekharan has stated in his Nov. 2000 interview [after
nine years!], that he “submitted a 100-page report with nearly 100
illustrations and photographs to CBI and the Verma Commission.”
Query 4: Why he or none of his associates who were involved in the forensic
analysis of the victims of May 21, 1991 event have not bothered to
publish their forensic findings on such an important assassination, in
a peer-reviewed medico-legal journal of international standing
[which is abstracted in the National Library of Medicine’s, Medline
database], until now? Isn’t this a professional negligence and
discourtesy to other scientists?

Credibility of Dr. Chandra Sekharan’s professional competence

Although I’m hesitant to side-track from the issue of forensic evidence
related to Rajiv assassination, I wish to bring to the attention of the readers
the following news item which appeared in the Times of India of July 7,
2001, which brings into question the credibility of Dr. Chandra Sekharan’s
professional competence. Interestingly, this may not be irrelevant to the
Rajiv assassination studies as well. Thus, I reproduce the news item from
Chennai in full:
Expert nails police video, faces music
“A leading forensic expert from Tamil Nadu, P.Chandra Sekharan, has

14 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

termed the police version of the video clippings on the arrest of former
CM Karunanidhi a ‘manipulated version’. In a statement on Thursday
[i.e., July 5, 2001], Chandra Sekharan, who established the human
bomb theory on the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, contended that
the police version looked ‘cruder than a fake photograph’. He was
referring to a picture released by the earlier AIADMK government to
show Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy and TADA prisoner
Ravi together in order to imprison Swamy.
Commenting on the police clippings, Chandra Sekharan pointed out
that scene of Union Industry and Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran
punching CB-CID Mohamed Ali in the face was clearly a ‘repeated
animation’ as it ‘did not exhibit the natural movements of a human
hand, but did clearly demonstrate the rigid movement of an animated
arm’. He further observed that the clippings of the police appeared in
different versions and were manipulated digitally.
However, the government, denying Chandra Sekharan’s observations,
initiated disciplinary proceedings against him. It accused him of having
committed ‘certain omissions and commissions’ during his tenure as
director of forensic science. It ordered an inquiry by a senior IAS
officer into his actions.
An official release said: ‘It is not known whether it is a mere surmise by
P.Chandra Sekharan since there is no scientific explanation offered for
his conclusions. It is pointed out that by mere visual observation of a
video clipping, such an opinion cannot be given. For forming and
furnishing an opinion, examination is necessary of video morphing and
video animation by computer graphic experts.”

I would be interested in learning more about the Tamil Nadu government’s

accusation that Dr.Chandra Sekharan had committed ‘certain omissions and
commissions’ during his tenure as director of forensic science. Whether
these ‘omissions and commissions’ include his investigations on the Rajiv
assassination is not clear now.

For record, I should include that Dr.Chandra Sekharan was a recipient of

India’s Padma Bhushan award in 2000. I became interested in Dr.Chandra
Sekharan’s curriculum vitae, which appeared in the Island (Colombo)
newspaper of June 17, 2001, in relation to his services offered to
Ms.Lakmani Welgama, the widow of the late Upali Wijewardene, in a
document forgery case. Two statistics cited under his ‘professional
experience’ in his curriculum vitae piqued my curiosity. These are,

1. “provided scientific evidence in more than a 100,000 cases.” This

statistic is not a printer’s error, since it is mentioned in his pre-interview
profile which appeared in the Rediff on the Net (Oct.14, 1999) as well.

15 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

100,000 cases in a career spanning “35 years” is a stupendous feat to

achieve, by any scale of imagination. On an average, this amounts to 2,857
cases per year, and almost 8 cases per day for 12,775 days (i.e. 35 x 365
days). Even if one assumes that Dr.Chandra Sekharan did provide scientific
evidence for 100,000 cases, what percent of these turned out to be accurate
deserves scrutiny.

2. “published 11 books and done 250 research papers.” Though I cannot

check the quality of his evidence for the said ‘100,000 cases’, I used an
independent measure to scrutinize the quality of his ‘250 research papers’.
The Medline database maintained by the National Library of Medicine
(USA) incorporates into its computer files all the peer-reviewed research
publications in biomedical sciences which appear in quality journals since
1965. This is the currently accepted ‘gold-standard’ for quality research
among biomedical scientists. Dr.Chandra Sekharan’s career has a 35-year
span, according to his vita; thus, all his quality publications would have
been entered in the Medline database. When I checked the Medline
database, using the two variants of his name [namely Chandra Sekharan P
and Sekharan CP], I received only 21 listed research papers in the checklist.
That is a pretty low figure for a scientist who prides himself as having 35
years of service and carrying the stature as the leading forensic scientist in
India. Facts-checking scientists always need a control to validate their
analysis. Thus, I used my 20-year publishing record as a control reference
and when I used the two variants of my name [namely Kantha SS and Sri
Kantha S], the same Medline database generated 39 research papers in the
checklist. I have produced a little over 100 research papers in the past 20
years of my career as a scientist. Thus, my inference was that the quality of
Dr.Chandra Sekharan’s ‘250 research papers’ (among which 21 are listed in
the Medline database) is suboptimal to that of mine (102 research papers
among which 39 are listed in the Medline database) indeed. I provide these
details so that any interested reader can check the source for its validity.

I focused on these two statistics to demonstrate that Dr. Chandra Sekharan’s

curriculum vitae reveals a not-too infrequent tendency seen among Indian
academics to embellish their academic credentials to gullible public and
journalists. Sad to say, this tendency is strongly seen among the Indian
academics who had their postgraduate degrees in Indian institutions.
According to the vita published in the Island newspaper of June 17, 2001,
Dr.Chandra Sekharan has received the following degrees: B.Sc. Mathematics
and Physics (Annamalai University), M.A.Physics with Electronics
(Annamalai University), M.Sc.Physics with Spectroscopy (Annamalai
University), Ph.D.Forensic Science Medical Faculty (Madras University).
This is not a criticism on the quality of Indian education. Along history and
even in the twentieth century, India had produced tens of originals in
subjects ranging from astronomy to yoga science. But, for every tens of

16 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

originals, thousands of fakes also coexist in the Indian mileau in every

sphere of activity, who thrive by their skills of self promotion.

Use of DNA fingerprinting for forensic investigations in India

The Deccan Herald of Aug.21, 2001 carried a Press Trust of India news
feature dated ‘New Delhi, Aug.20’ with a caption ‘Potential of DNA
fingerprinting crippled by poor awareness’. It contained some relevant
information about the Rajiv assassination case as presented by Dr.Lalji
Singh, the Director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology,
Hyderabad. Excerpts:
“…Dr.Singh has visited hundreds of court rooms across the country to
be tried as ‘witness’, and says his experience has been ‘unpleasant’ and
‘full of suspicion’. He had even been accused of ‘playing on the
ignorance of the judge’. This technology has mind boggling potential in
criminal investigation. But then, we have to educate the judiciary of its
vital import’. And the cases he helped investigate include Rajiv Gandhi
assassination…

Establishing the identity of Dhanu, the suicide bomber who killed

former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, was another occasion when the
DNA probe was used: ‘We established that the DNA found in the
skull, charred muscle pieces on the suicide bomber’s belt showed
identical patterns, which led us to prove that Dhanu was the bomber.’
Equally crucial was comparing LTTE mastermind Sivarasan’s DNA to
that of his parents who were flown in from Sri Lanka for the purpose:
‘Establishing the identity of Sivarasan was the only evidence we had to
link the murder of Rajiv to LTTE’….”

The last sentence is nothing more than gibberish. According to Dr.Singh,

they had compared the DNAs of Sivarasan with that of his parents ‘who
were flown in from Sri Lanka for the purpose’. Similarities in the DNA
pattern of Sivarasan to that of his ‘parents’ would only prove that Sivarasan
was only a progeny of his ‘parents’ and nothing about ‘linking the murder of
Rajiv to LTTE’. So much for the Indian journalese and facts-checking
credentials.

Now, to the interesting puzzle about Sivarasan’s parents, as noted by

Dr.Lalji Singh. On Sivarasan’s origins, the Eelam Tamil journalist
D.B.S.Jeyaraj had published ‘an exclusive investigation’ in mid 1991 in the
Frontline magazine, which was republished in the Lanka Guardian of
Sept.15, 1991. According to this report, Sivarasan’s mother Sivapackiyam,
who is from Chavakachcheri, was alive in 1991. [I’m not sure whether she is
still alive.] But Sivarasan’s father Chandrasekharam Pillai, who is from
Udupiddy, had died in late 1977. Thus, only one can be correct; either

17 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM
The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon Part 26 http://www.sangam.org/PIRABAKARAN/Part26.htm

Jeyaraj or Dr.Singh. If Jeyaraj is correct in his report, that Sivarasan’s father

had died in late 1977, the person who was flown from Sri Lanka to India for
DNA finger printing match with Sivarasan’s sample was a consenting
impersonator. Thus collapses the credibility of India’s forensic scientists
who were engaged in the Rajiv assassination case. (Continued)

18 of 18 12/15/2008 11:26 AM