The Delhi High Court Tuesday imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Janata Party president and former Union minister Subramaniam Swamy for alleging that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa knew about the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's plan to assassinate former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at Sriperumbudur in May 1991.
Justice Pradeep Nandrajog said Swamy had failed to establish that Jayalalithaa had received information and money from the 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 the expression,'' said the order.
The M C Jain Commission of Inquiry was constituted on August 23, 1991 by the Centre 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 on April 17, 1991.
Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani had appeared for Jayalalithaa and cross-examined Swamy.
However, he did not disclose the source of information on the basis of which he had made the statement alleging that Jayalalithaa had prior knowledge about the assassination of Gandhi.