"That has been our basic charge since a long time. We have always said DMK was behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in an indirect way," the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief told mediapersons, responding to queries on reported remarks of Pathmanathan, leader of the now decimated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, that the DMK's ideology of anti-Brahminism could have influenced the outfit to kill Gandhi.
Known for her hardline against LTTE, Jayalalithaa, who was responsible for adoption of a resolution in the Tamil Nadu assembly during her 1991-96 rule demanding arrest and extradition of slain LTTE founder V Prabhakaran, said threats from the outfit were not new to her.
"I have been living with death threats since 1991 (when Gandhi was assassinated). This is nothing new," she said on Pathmanathan's claim that his outfit had tried to target her also.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in a suicide attack at Sriperumbuthur on May 21, 1991, by LTTE, which was outlawed subsequently.