24 May 2000

From Our Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI: Janata Party leader Dr Subramanian Swamy's controversial book on Rajiv Gandhi's assassination has landed him in the lap of the Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) investigatingt the conspiracy angle to the ghastly murder.

The Jain Inquiry Commission had already pointed the needle of suspicion on Dr Swamy besides tantrik Chandraswami and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and the MDMA was constituted basically for the follow-up action.

CBI Joint Director R N Kaul, who heads the MDMA, therefore, had a reason to knock at the door of Dr Swamy on Tuesday to know more about his allegations in his book on Congress leader Arjun Singh with regard to the former Prime Minister's assassination.

Dr Swamy, however, shrugged off Kaul, reportedly telling him that he had no time and would be available for any questioning only in the first week of June. Since Kaul was not on an interrogation mission with a warrant, he had to withdraw quietly.

Having waited for a rare opportunity, the MDMA may, however, now go all lock, stock and barrel against Dr Swamy as the CBI sources hinted that a raid on his houses may be forthcoming since his book shows he has material relevant to the MDMA investigations.

Dr Swamy says the Vajapyee Government had included the name of Karunanidhi in the list of persons to be further investigated by the MDMA in December 1998 just to please AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha whose party was then an ally in the government.

The same government is now dragging feet to allow MDMA to quiz Karunanidhi just because his DMK is now a partner in the government and that was why MDMA was not able to do much progress in its investigations all part 18 months, Dr Swamy points out.

He suspects MDMA may, however, try to harass him just as a part of the political agenda of Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani who wants to put him in one or the other difficulty. END. =========