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47-458: The group was also interested in creating their own area in Tamil Nadu. The group was founded by P. Ravichandran in the late 1980s. After the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi , support for Tamil liberation groups decreased steadily. This remained true for years before new Tamil pro-liberation movements, emerged. This was quickly shut down by the then Chief Minister Jayalalitha . This eventually led to

94-812: A group supported by the Tamil National Retrieval troop that was based in Sri Lanka. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam established the National retrieval troop as a small militant group. According to Ravichandran, members of the Tamil National Retrieval Troops were instructed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to annihilate anyone who opposes their objective for a separate nation for the Tamils. The Tamil Tigers provided training and supplies for

141-453: A mobile phone was allegedly recovered from her cell during a surprise check. She "regrets" the killing of the former Prime Minister and claims that the real conspirators have not been booked yet. The President of India rejected the clemency pleas of Murugan and two others on death row, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan and A G Perarivalan alias Arivu in August 2011. The execution of the three convicts

188-410: Is a raised platform at the front of a room or hall, usually for one or more speakers or honored guests. Historically, the dais was a part of the floor at the end of a medieval hall , raised a step above the rest of the room. On this, the master of the household or assembly (e.g. the lord of the manor ) dined with his senior associates and friends at the high table, while the other guests occupied

235-552: Is from the thirteenth century. It stopped being used in English around 1600 but was revived by antiquarians in the early 19th century with the disyllabic pronunciation. It comes from the Anglo-French deis , meaning "table" or "platform", which comes from Medieval Latin discus , meaning "table", earlier "disc" or "dish". [REDACTED] Media related to Dais at Wikimedia Commons This architectural element –related article

282-442: Is the lone surviving member of the five-member squad behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and is serving life imprisonment. Arrested on 14 June 1991, she was sentenced to death, along with the other 25 accused. However, the court confirmed that the death sentence was given to only four of the convicts, including Nalini, on 11 May 1999. Nalini, who is the wife of an LTTE operative known as V. Sriharan alias Murugan, another convict in

329-406: Is the raised, sometimes covered, platform from where the troops are reviewed, addresses are made, and salutes are taken. It can also have stairs and a throne. In life drawing rooms of art schools , the platform where the model poses for the students is sometimes referred to as the dais. A dais for giving speeches is called a rostrum . The first written record of the word dais in English

376-552: The I. K. Gujral government and fresh elections in 1998. Also other strong LTTE sympathizers Vaiko with MDMK and Thol. Thirumavalavan with VCK have supported Congress under Sonia Gandhi in the past. Vaiko left the UPA alliance before the 2009 election , partly due to the Sri Lankan issue. In a report published on 30 October 2012 in DNA India, K. Ragothaman, former chief investigator of

423-522: The CBI's investigation, particularly related to the seizure of Rs. 40 lakh in cash from the convicts, which led him to believe that the probe exposed "an unpardonable flaw" in the "Indian criminal justice system". In the 2001 Norway peace talks, Prabhakaran told the press that the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi was a sorrowful event. In 2006, LTTE spokesman Anton Balasingham told the Indian television channel NDTV that

470-561: The CBI, talks about his new book Conspiracy to Kill Rajiv Gandhi: From the CBI Files and tells the reporter that while the CBI had started a preliminary inquiry in which M. K. Narayanan , former West Bengal Governor and former Intelligence Bureau director, was named a suspect in hiding evidence, the case was buried by the CBI SIT Chief, D. R. Karthikeyan . In an interview in 2017, Justice K.T. Thomas had said that "there were serious flaws" in

517-531: The Indian government. The Tamil National Retrieval Troops aided Veerappan in the kidnapping of Rajkumar . The TNRT, along with the Tamil Nadu Liberation Army and Veerappan requested that numerous political demands must be met in order for the hostage to be released. The group held Rajkumar for 108 days before finally letting him go unharmed. Veerappan - Was a coconspirator in the kidnapping of Rajkumar. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -

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564-624: The Justice J. S. Verma Commission was formed to look into the security lapses that contributed to the killing. The final report, submitted in June 1992, concluded that the security arrangements for the former PM were adequate but that the local Congress party leaders disrupted and broke these arrangements. The findings raised vital questions that political analysts have consistently raised. The Narasimha Rao government initially rejected Verma's findings but later accepted it under pressure. However, no action

611-639: The LTTE chief Prabhakaran towards Rajiv Gandhi arising from his sending the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka and the numerous war crimes perpetrated by IPKF personnel against Sri Lankan Tamils. Additionally, the Rajiv Gandhi administration had antagonised other Tamil militant organisations like PLOTE for reversing the military coup in Maldives back in 1988. The judgment further cited

658-604: The Supreme Court of India. The Commission report stated that the year 1989 signified "the perpetuation of the general political trend of indulging the Tamil militants on Indian soil and tolerance of their wide-ranging criminal and anti-national activities". The report also alleged that LTTE leaders in Jaffna were in possession of sensitive coded messages exchanged between the Union government and

705-495: The Tamil National retrieval movement in Sri Lanka before sending them into India. Tamil National Liberation Army - Some members possibly belonged to this group as well due to the fact that factions were constantly broken up and disbanded so the soldiers of various Tamil Nadu groups moved from group to group varying based on their beliefs and preferred location. Both groups believe that Tamil Nadu should be free and sovereign, and

752-444: The accused could be convicted based on evidence that would have been insufficient for conviction by an ordinary court under normal Indian law. In the Rajiv Gandhi case, confessions by the accused formed a major part of the evidence in the judgment against them which they later claimed was taken under duress. On appeal to the Supreme Court, only four accused were sentenced to death and the others to various jail terms. S. Nalini Sriharan

799-608: The assassin, were killed. It was carried out by 22-year-old Kalaivani Rajaratnam (popularly known by her assumed names Thenmozhi Rajaratnam and Dhanu), a member of the banned Sri Lankan Tamil separatist rebel organization Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). At the time, India had just ended its involvement , through the Indian Peace Keeping Force , in the Sri Lankan Civil War . Subsequent accusations of conspiracy have been addressed by two commissions of inquiry and have brought down at least one national government,

846-527: The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi to life imprisonment. On November 11, 2022, the Supreme Court of India ordered the release of six convicts in the 1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, after the Tamil Nadu government controversially recommended their remission in March 2016, the convicts are: As per the Supreme Court of India judgment, by Judge K. T. Thomas , the killing was carried out due to personal animosity of

893-463: The assassination of Shri Rajiv Gandhi…(for which) Rs 10 crore would be made available." Also included in the report are said to be the drunken utterances of a policeman confirming the matter. The interim report of the Jain Commission created a storm when it accused M. Karunanidhi the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu of a role in the assassination, leading to Congress withdrawing its support for

940-452: The assassination. One of the accused, Ranganath, said Chandraswami was the godfather who financed the killing. In 1998, it was published in a newspaper that an interim report by the Jain commission referred to a letter citing unverified information that Queen Aishwarya Rajya Lakshmi Devi Shah of Nepal had asked a courtier general of King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev of Nepal, "to arrange for

987-502: The banning of the TNRT. In the 1990s its leader Ravichandran was an accused of the murder of Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) general secretary and the 1991 Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. On July 2, 2002, The Tamil National Retrieval Troops (TNRT) are included in the Prevention of Terrorist Act (POTA), 2002. The group is officially considered a terrorist organization by

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1034-469: The case who had been sentenced to death, later gave birth to a girl, Harithra Murugan in prison. Upon the intervention of Rajiv Gandhi's widow and Congress president Sonia Gandhi , who petitioned for clemency for the sake of Nalini's daughter in 2000, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Nalini was treated as a class 'A' convict from 10 September 1999 till the privilege was withdrawn in May 2010 after

1081-451: The death of Thileepan in a hunger strike and the suicide by 12 LTTE cadres in a vessel in October 1987. While convicting the accused, four of them to death and others to various jail terms, the judgment stated that no evidence existed that any one of the conspirators ever desired the death of any Indian other than Rajiv Gandhi, though several others were killed. Judge Wadhwa further stated there

1128-472: The explosion that followed, along with 43 others who were grievously injured. The assassination was caught on film by a local photographer, Haribabu (also a conspirator), who also died in the blast but whose camera and film was found intact at the site. Apart from former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the suicide bomber Kalaivani Rajaratnam, 15 people perished in the blast: Around 43 bystanders, including police sub-inspector Anushiya Daisy, were injured in

1175-578: The explosion; there were 59 casualties in total. The Supreme Court held that the decision to eliminate Gandhi was precipitated by his interview with Sunday magazine (21–28 August 1990), where he stated that he would send the IPKF to disarm the LTTE if he returned to power. Gandhi also defended the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka accord in the same interview. The LTTE's decision to kill him was perhaps aimed at preventing him from coming to power again. Thereafter,

1222-514: The government of Inder Kumar Gujral . Rajiv Gandhi was busy election campaigning with G. K. Moopanar in the southern states of India . On 21 May, after campaigning in Visakhapatnam , Andhra Pradesh , his next stop was Sriperumbudur , Tamil Nadu . About two hours after arriving in Madras (now Chennai), Gandhi was driven by motorcade in a white Ambassador car to Sriperumbudur , stopping along

1269-557: The killing was a "great tragedy, a monumental historical tragedy which we deeply regret". Months before the assassination, Vazhappady K. Ramamurthy , who served as the president of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee from 1989 to 1994, produced a letter, purportedly from the LTTE threatening to kill him and Rajiv Gandhi, who had called for a tight clamp down of the LTTE activities in Tamil Nadu. The letter signed by LTTE written in Tamil said that they had received orders from

1316-614: The land should be set aside for those who reside there. Global terrorism database for the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi [REDACTED] The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi , former prime minister of India , occurred as a result of a suicide bombing in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu , India on 21 May 1991. At least 14 others, in addition to Gandhi and

1363-439: The leadership to eliminate people opposing their "Eelam struggle". The letter further said the following: We were made to vacate Ambattur. But we could kill your leader (Mr.Gandhi) no matter where we are based. Do not interfere with our activities. If you continue to interfere, your comrade Parasuraman of Ambattur who sneaked to the police about our presence there, will not be alive In a 2011 interview, Kumaran Pathmanathan , who

1410-405: The lower area of the room. In medieval halls, there was generally a deeply recessed bay window at one or both ends of the dais, which provided retirement or greater privacy than the open hall. The dais area often had its own doorway for admission from the master's chambers, whereas most of the guests entered through a doorway leading into the main area of the hall. At military parades , the dais

1457-475: The plot. Sivarasan's mother, Sivapackiyam was the sister of Kalaivani's father whereas Subha's parents are related to Sivarasan's father. Another assumed reason as to why they were selected to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi was due to the genetics of the Rajaratnam-Pillai clan, of which many exhibited drastically different front and side profiles. The court convicted and sentenced the seven persons who facilitated

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1504-690: The report was leaked in November 1998. The assassination was carried out by Kalaivani Rajaratnam alias Dhanu. She was born on 26 July 1968 in Kaithady Nunavil , Jaffna Peninsula . It was after joining the LTTE that she came to be known by the assumed name Thenmozhi. Her family hailed from Kupukullai, a small village in Jaffna . She studied in Vavuniya and Batticaloa . She also temporarily lived in Urumpirai . She

1551-513: The site where he was cremated is known as Veerbhumi . Immediately after the assassination, the Chandra Shekhar government handed the investigation over to the CBI on 22 May 1991. The agency created a special investigation team (SIT) under D. R. Karthikeyan to determine who was responsible for the assassination. The SIT probe confirmed the role of the LTTE in the assassination, which was upheld by

1598-408: The state government rejected her request. Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, the three convicts condemned to death, claimed that they were not ordinary criminals but political prisoners. In the Jain report, various people and agencies are named as suspected of having been involved in the murder of Rajiv Gandhi. Among them, the cleric Chandraswami was suspected of involvement, including financing

1645-455: The state government. "There is evidence to show that, during this period, some of the most vital wireless messages were passed between the LTTE operatives based in Tamil Nadu and Jaffna. These messages, which were decoded later, are directly related to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi", the report stated. The Congress subsequently brought down the United Front (UF) government of I K Gujral after

1692-781: The way at a few other election campaigning venues. Neena Gopal of the Gulf News of Dubai was also in the car, in the back seat with Chandrashekhar and a local party official. When Gandhi reached a campaign rally in Sriperumbudur, he left his car and began walking towards the dais where he was to deliver a speech. Along the way, he was garlanded by many well-wishers, Indian National Congress workers and school children. The assassin, Kalaivani Rajaratnam, approached and greeted him. She then bent down to touch his feet and detonated an RDX explosive-laden belt tucked below her dress at exactly 10:10 PM. Gandhi, Rajaratnam and 14 others were killed in

1739-557: Was 7; he was in Chennai, and his body was airlifted to Jaffna, where his funeral was held. Marital status of Kalaivani at the time of her death, is not known to the general public. Kalaivani was survived by her mother, brother Sivavarman and two sisters, Anuja and Vasugi, the former died in a skirmish with the Indian army in Weli Oya in late 1991 and the latter moved to France . Kalaivani is related to Sivarasan and Subha, two co-conspirators of

1786-577: Was held behind closed doors, in chambers , and the identity of witnesses was not disclosed. Ms A. Athirai, an accused, was 17 years old when she was arrested. Under the TADA an accused can appeal only to the Supreme Court . Appeal to the High Court is not allowed as in normal law. Confessions given by the accused to the Superintendent of Police are taken as evidence against the accused under TADA. Under TADA

1833-522: Was inspired by the Tamil militant group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers) at a young age, and joined the Black Tigers (suicide bombers) after an ankle injury. She was known as “ captain Akino ” and was a flag bearer for female LTTE marches. Another reason why Kalaivani became a Tiger is that her brother was a well-known cadre who had died and she was carrying on the family tradition. Kalaivani

1880-567: Was not able to pinpoint when the decision to kill Rajiv Gandhi was taken. The trial was conducted under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act . On 28 January 1998, the designated TADA court in Chennai gave death sentences to all the 26 accused. This created a storm in India. Legal experts were divided. Human rights groups protested that the trial did not meet the standards of a free trial. The trial

1927-404: Was nothing on record to show that the intention to kill Rajiv Gandhi was to overawe the government. Hence it was held that it was not a terrorist act under TADA (Act). Judge Thomas further stated that conspiracy was hatched in stages commencing from 1987 and that it spanned several years. The special investigation team of India's premier special investigation agency Central Bureau of Investigation

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1974-553: Was scheduled for 9 September 2011. However, the Madras High Court intervened and stayed their execution for eight weeks based on their petitions. Nalini was shifted back to Vellore prison from Puzhal prison amidst tight security on 7 September 2011. In 2010, Nalini moved the Madras High Court seeking release as she had served more than 20 years in prison. She argued that even life convicts were released after 14 years. However,

2021-541: Was sent to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi for an autopsy, reconstruction and embalming. A state funeral was held for Rajiv Gandhi on 24 May 1991. His funeral was broadcast live nationally and internationally and was attended by dignitaries from over 60 countries. He was cremated on the banks of the river Yamuna , near the cremation spot of his mother , brother and grandfather . Today,

2068-824: Was taken on the recommendations of the commission. Sources have indicated that Gandhi was repeatedly informed that there was a threat to his life and that he should not travel to Tamil Nadu. The then governor of Tamil Nadu Bhishma Narain Singh , broke official protocol and twice warned Gandhi about the threat to his life if he visited the state. Subramanian Swamy said in his book, Sri Lanka in Crisis: India's Options (2007) , that an LTTE delegation had met Rajiv Gandhi on 5 March 1991. Another delegation met him around 14 March 1991 in New Delhi. Journalist Ram Bahadur Rai wrote that: The message conveyed to Rajiv Gandhi by both these delegations

2115-517: Was that there was no threat to his life and he could travel to Tamil Nadu without fearing for his life. I did a series of articles after his assassination that pointed out how, after these meetings, Rajiv became complacent about his security and broke security rules in more than 40 rallies. Following his assassination, Rajiv Gandhi's mutilated body was airlifted to New Delhi . From the Indira Gandhi International Airport , his body

2162-552: Was the Treasurer of LTTE and its chief arms procurer, apologized to India for Velupillai Prabhakaran's "mistake" of killing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He further said Rajiv's assassination was "well planned and done actually with Prabhakaran and (LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman). Everyone knows the truth". Dais A dais or daïs ( / ˈ d eɪ . ə s / or / ˈ d eɪ s / , American English also / ˈ d aɪ . ə s / but sometimes considered nonstandard)

2209-410: Was the daughter of a Sri Lankan Tamil man named A. Rajaratnam and his second wife. A. Rajaratnam's first wife died during childbirth in 1962, when he was visiting tea estates. Rajaratnam was described as Velupillai Prabhakaran 's mentor, and he played a vital role in moulding the LTTE chief's thinking during the movement's formative years between 1972 and 1975. A. Rajaratnam died in 1975 when Kalaivani

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