MDMA spent over Rs 100 crore on probe: Counsel

Chennai: N. Chandrasekaran, cou­nsel for Perarivalan al­ias Arivu, a death convict in former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, revealed that the CBI’s Multi Dis­ciplinary Monitory Age­ncy (MDMA), which was constituted in 1999 to probe and unearth the larger conspiracy in the murder and reveal the real conspirators, had spent more than Rs 100 crore.

He told reporters this after coming out from an in-camera proceeding in the designated court un­der the now-defunct Ter­r­orist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) relating to Arivu’s petition, seeking effective monitoring of MDMA. The court will deliver its verdict on the matter on December 10, he said.

Chandrasekaran said that Arivu was an agg­rieved person and hence had filed the petition before the court on Sep­te­mber 13, 2013. The CBI in its reply had submitted that there was no locus standi for the petitioner to move the application and the court had no power to try the matter.

However Chandra­sek­aran obse­rved that Arivu had every right to pray for the court intervention since he had been sleeping on the sha­dow of the gallows. Arivu was the victim of flawed investigation by the CBI and the agency had ignored vital clues pointing to the possible involvement of high profile officials and politicians in the murder.