The Deadly Duo

 Crucial evidence linking Chandraswami to the Rajiv case went missing from Rao's PMO. Outlookinvestigates.

• File No. 8-1-WR/JSS/90/Vol.III—containing notings of bureaucrats regarding security arrangements for Rajiv Gandhi from November '89—was lost from the PMO in '91. Later, it was doctored and reconstructed by the Narasimha Rao government before it was submitted to the Jain Commission.
• File No. 1/12014/5/91-IAS/DIII reported missing since 1995. It pertained to the terms of reference of the Verma and Jain commissions of inquiry.
• File containing intercepted messages from foreign intelligence agencies, said to be addressed to Chandraswami and Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, destroyed by senior officials in the PMO.
• File on IB's assessment of the role played by Zail Singh and Chandraswami in 1987 to topple Rajiv Gandhi missing.
• File with records of official briefings by intelligence agencies on the assassination to Rao's home minister S.B. Chavan missing. The former minister con-firms he was briefed orally.
• The April 20, 1991, wireless intercept with the leading question—should Rajiv be killed in Delhi or Madras?—missing.
• File relating to the Rao government's attempt to wind up the Jain Commission is still withheld from the panel.

DO these files/messages and other sensitive information—categorised as untraceable, missing, destroyed or "cannot be revealed" due to security reasons—hold the key to the mystery that shrouds Rajiv Gandhi's assassination? The Jain Commission thinks so. The AICC has been pressing for these files and documents. And intelligence officials admit in private that vital evidence seems to have been suppressed to ensure that the larger conspiracy behind the May 21, 1991, assassination does not come to light.
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