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CBI outfit allowed to probe Rajiv case further

Tamizh Vanan, designated judge in Madras trying cases being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, today permitted the Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency to inquire further into the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case on the basis on the Justice Milap Chand Jain Commission report and the related action-taken report.

Permitting a CBI petition to further investigate the case in accordance with section 173(8) of the Criminal Procedure Code, the judge also allowed another petition by the agency asking that all further proceedings be held in-camera.

Further details of the order are not known. Reporters covering the court proceedings had a tough time collecting the details as court circles and the CBI seemed loath to part with them.

The Jain Commission, set up in 1991 to probe the conspiracy behind the assassination, had submitted its interim report in 1997 and the final report in 1998 to the Centre.

The commission had recommended constitution of the MDMA to further investigate the case.

Earlier this year, the CBI had filed petitions twice before the earlier judge designated under the now-defunct Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, Vadivel Rathnam, seeking to further probe the case, but he had returned them since he was on transfer.

He had also dismissed a petition filed by Palani, a TADA detenu in Madras, seeking further investigation of the case, especially into the alleged involvement of 41 persons named in the final report of the Jain Commission.

The CBI petition later came up before Tamizh Vanan, who wanted specific orders from the Madras high court that he could hear TADA cases as the assassination case had originally been heard by a designated TADA court.

UNI

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