Thenmozhi Rajaratnam

The Supreme Court held that the decision to eliminate Gandhi was precipitated by his interview with Sunday magazine (21–28 August 1990), where he stated that he would send the IPKF to disarm the LTTE if he returned to power.

Gandhi also defended the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka accord in the same interview.

The LTTE's decision to kill him was perhaps aimed at preventing him from coming to power again.

Thereafter, the Justice J. S. Verma Commission was formed to look into the security lapses that contributed to the killing.

The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India, occurred as a result of a suicide bombing in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, India on 21 May 1991.

At least 14 others, in addition to Rajiv Gandhi, were killed.

It was carried out by 22-year-old Kalaivani Rajaratnam (popularly known by her assumed names Thenmozhi Rajaratnam and Dhanu), a member of the Sri Lankan Tamil banned separatist rebel organization Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

At the time, India had just ended its involvement, through the Indian Peace Keeping Force, in the Sri Lankan Civil War.

Subsequent accusations of conspiracy have been addressed by two commissions of inquiry and have brought down at least one national government, the government of Inder Kumar Gujral.

Rajiv Gandhi was busy election campaigning with G.K. Moopanar in the southern states of India.

On 21 May, after campaigning in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, his next stop was Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.

About two hours after arriving in Madras (now Chennai), Gandhi was driven by motorcade in a white Ambassador car to Sriperumbudur, stopping along the way at a few other election campaigning venues.

Neena Gopal of the Gulf News of Dubai was also in the car, in the back seat with Chandrashekhar and a local party official.

When Gandhi reached a campaign rally in Sriperumbudur, he left his car and began walking towards the dais where he was to deliver a speech.

Along the way, he was garlanded by many well-wishers, Indian National Congress workers and school children.

The assassin, Kalaivani Rajaratnam, approached and greeted him.

She then bent down to touch his feet and detonated an RDX explosive-laden belt tucked below her dress at exactly 10:10 PM.

Gandhi, his assassin and 14 others were killed in the explosion that followed, along with 43 others who were grievously injured.

The assassination was caught on film by a local photographer, Haribabu (also a conspirator), who also died in the blast but whose camera and film was found intact at the site.

Apart from former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the suicide bomber Kalaivani Rajaratnam, over a dozen people were killed in the blast on 21 May 1991:

Around forty-three bystanders, including police sub-inspector Anushiya Daisy, were also injured in the explosion.

Subramanian Swamy said in his book, Sri Lanka in Crisis: India's Options (2007), that an LTTE delegation had met Rajiv Gandhi on 5 March 1991.

Another delegation met him around 14 March 1991 in New Delhi.

Journalist Ram Bahadur Rai wrote that:

"The message conveyed to Rajiv Gandhi by both these delegations was that there was no threat to his life and he could travel to Tamil Nadu without fearing for his life. I did a series of articles after his assassination that pointed out how, after these meetings, Rajiv became complacent about his security and broke security rules in more than 40 rallies."

Following his assassination, Rajiv Gandhi's mutilated body was airlifted to New Delhi.

From the Indira Gandhi International Airport, his body was sent to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi for an autopsy, reconstruction and embalming.

A state funeral was held for Rajiv Gandhi on 24 May 1991.

His funeral was broadcast live nationally and internationally and was attended by dignitaries from over 60 countries.

He was cremated on the banks of the river Yamuna, near the cremation spot of his mother, brother and grandfather.

Today, the site where he was cremated is known as Veerbhumi.

Immediately after the assassination, the Chandra Shekhar government handed the investigation over to the CBI on 22 May 1991.

The agency created a special investigation team (SIT) under D. R. Karthikeyan to determine who was responsible for the assassination.

The SIT probe confirmed the role of the LTTE in the assassination, which was upheld by the Supreme Court of India.

The final report, submitted in June 1992, concluded that the security arrangements for the former PM were adequate but that the local Congress party leaders disrupted and broke these arrangements.

The findings raised vital questions that political analysts have consistently raised.

The Narasimha Rao government initially rejected Verma's findings but later accepted it under pressure.

However, no action was taken on the recommendations of the commission.

Sources have indicated that Gandhi was repeatedly informed that there was a threat to his life and that he should not travel to Tamil Nadu.

The then governor of Tamil Nadu Bhishma Narain Singh, broke official protocol and twice warned Gandhi about the threat to his life if he visited the state.