The Supreme Court, on August 17, 2017 directed the Centre to submit a report on the investigation carried out by them, on the conspiracy behind the bombing that led to the assassination of the former Prime Minister, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi.

The Hon’ble bench headed by Mr. Justice Ranjan Gogoi, during the proceedings asked for the submission of the result of the investigation and said “What is the result of the re-investigation or further investigation on this aspect? Kindly address us on this. We want only this”.

This order was passed after the Counsel representing the Convict A G Perarivalan, argued before the bench that there were several issues, including the conspiracy behind making of the bomb that killed Rajiv Gandhi, which were not investigated properly in the case. The Counsels, further submitted that has poked holes in the prosecution version that the makers of the bomb, who were resourceful enough to get hold of high-grade explosives and other complex parts of the IED, would have actually depended on Perarivalan to buy a battery for the bomb.

In response to these submissions, the Counsel on Behalf of the Central Bureau of Investigation, stated that the probe is prolonged because there are several difficulties, including the fact that many of the suspects are absconders and outside the country, and so they require to be extradited first.

The Apex Court, on record of such contentions, has asked the government about the probe being carried out on this aspect, after one of the convicts in the assassination case claimed that this issue has not been properly investigated. It has reportedly stated that the probe has to be completed and if there is any benefit accruing to the petitioner (Perarivalan) from the result of the enquiry, he should surely get it.

The next hearing is to be held next week.