If you believe CBI, Dhanu didn’t die in the blast that killed Rajiv Gandhi

India’s premier investigative agency – the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) – just doesn’t seem to get it right. After having goofed up on the 50 most wanted list earlier this year, the agency has scored another major blooper.

The agency, while patting its own back on investigation into the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, has said Thenmozhi Rajaratnam alias Dhanu of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was sentenced to death by the trial court as well as the Supreme Court. The fact is she had died in the explosion that killed Gandhi on May 21, 1991 in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai.

Dhanu, wearing a bomb suit, denoted herself while she was bending to touch Gandhi’s feet. Alongwith Gandhi and Dhanu, several others too were killed in the explosion. The weblink titled ‘Rajiv Gandhi assassination case’ has been recently put up by the agency on its web portal www.cbi.nic.in. It is part of CBI archives.

The CBI says the designated TADA Court in Chennai awarded death sentences to all the 26 accused. Later, after an appeal in the Supreme Court, only four (Dhanu and three others) of them were sentenced to death. Others were given various jail terms, the website says.

The CBI spokesperson did not respond to text messages and email sent by DNA requesting the agency for its reaction on the goof-up.

In May this year, glaring errors on part of the CBI were highlighted. The list of 50 most wanted men from India, which was given to Pakistan in March, had names of two men who were actually in India and not in Pakistan. Feroz Rashid Khan was lodged in the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai and was facing trial in the 1993 serial bomb blasts case.

While, Wazhul Kamar Khan, was also shown as wanted in the 2003 Mulund train bomb blast case, whereas he was residing in Thane with his family.

These instances had cause major embarrassment to CBI and the Indian government. Immediately after the expose, CBI had withdrawn the said list and had promised to correct all the errors. However, this latest goof-up by the central agency indicates that little has been done to correct the errors.