Nearly two months after its tenure ended, the Centre has granted a one-year extension to CBI's Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA), which is probing the wider conspiracy behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The term of MDMA, which is headed by a CBI official and comprises officers from IB, RAW and Revenue Intelligence, ended on May 31 this year. It has now been given a post-facto approval for extension.
Sources said that the role of Sri Lanka national Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP, who is alleged to be a key actor in the conspiracy, is under investigation. KP is believed to be the man responsible for arranging arms for LTTE and for the assassination of Gandhi, they added. Pathmanathan, the alleged financier, was reported to have been arrested in a Southeast Asian country nearly four years back and taken to Sri Lanka.
CBI has been on his trail for nearly 15 years and its team had travelled to New Zealand in that regard in 2002. The Jain Commission, which went into Gandhi's killing, had come across various leads, including bank transactions of the LTTE's front organisations before and after the assassination and on the movement of arms meant for LTTE during that period. Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991, in Tamil Nadu by LTTE members.
