Solving Crime: How a piece of paper proved crucial in tracking down Rajiv Gandhi assassination mastermind in Bengaluru

Even as the country went into mourning, the Centre appointed Karnataka-cadre IPS officer D R Karthikeyan as the chief of the Special Investigation Team (SIT). He had been serving as the Inspector General of Police (IGP) in a central agency.

The probe which began in Tamil Nadu, soon expanded to Sri Lanka after the role of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was established. Central agencies, including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Special Commando Forces were also roped in.

Three months into the incident, the police started circulating images of Sivarasan, a key accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. The head of the political wing of LTTE, he was the mastermind behind the assassination plot. In an interview, Karthikeyan – who later retired as the CBI director general — said the helpline set up for information regarding the assassination received more than 50,000 calls. A lot of letters were also received.

B K Shivaram, then police sub-inspector of Wilson Garden, recalls, “From the deceased, the police recovered a small piece of paper which said, ‘Anjanappa – Puttenahalli’.

A piece of paper, a covert operation

Even as there was little information about the whereabouts of the absconding LTTE members, an unexpected turn of events unfolded 108 km away from Bengaluru.

Local residents in Muthathi, a small village in Karnataka’s Mandya, informed the police about the suspicious movements of some men there. Armed with this information, the jurisdictional police under inspector C K Nagaraj and sub-inspector Mutthuraya, descended upon the hideout.

Much to the shock of the police team, many of the men consumed cyanide on encountering the police and some of them succumbed. The police had never before faced such a situation.

B K Shivaram, then police sub-inspector of Wilson Garden, recalls, “From the deceased, the police recovered a small piece of paper which said, ‘Anjanappa – Puttenahalli’. Meanwhile, the survivors, who were shifted to Bengaluru for treatment, confessed that they were LTTE members. The Bengaluru City police was astounded because this was the first information that the LTTE had presence in Karnataka as well.”

Then Bengaluru City police commissioner R Ramalingam was at his residence when he got the message that LTTE sympathisers and some suspects were in Bengaluru. Then deputy commissioner of police Kempaiah, who was coordinating with the CBI, immediately formed teams.

The inquiry revealed crucial information. Shivaram says many LTTE members, including those injured in the civil war in Sri Lanka, used to take motor boats to Tamil Nadu and would enter India. They would get treatment in Tamil Nadu or in Bengaluru areas where many Tamilians lived.

In Bengaluru, nursing homes and hospitals located in Indiranagar, Halasur were the most sought-after places for LTTE members who sought treatment. “When we checked these hospitals, some of them tried to consume cyanide which they usually wore around their necks. We managed to keep them alive,” says Shivaram who has since retired from the force.

He adds that by then the CBI came to know that a man working at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bengaluru was an LTTE sympathiser who had distributed sweets the day after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.

Shivaram and then Adugodi police sub-inspector Ramesh Chandra questioned the HAL employee who defended the killing and explained how the Tamils were suffering because of Rajiv Gandhi. It also came to light that some LTTE members were living in HAL 2nd Stage. The CBI SIT sought the Bengaluru City police’s help.

Shivaram recalls, “The CBI asked the Bengaluru City police not to conduct a raid because the suspects were believed to have AK-47s and hand grenades. Meanwhile, the LTTE members living in HAL 2nd Stage were also aware that the HAL employee was caught.”

By the time the CBI and police barged into the house, they had started fleeing. “There was one young boy who was running… I and another colleague caught him but he bit into the cyanide. Immediately, we used drainage water to make sure that he vomited it out. The locals then came to help by providing salt water. Fortunately, he survived and was handed over to the CBI,” Shivaram says.

While some LTTE members were captured, Sivarasan and others were still on the run. Those were the days when there were no mobile phones or social media. Working on the information on the piece of paper obtained earlier – ‘Anjanappa – Puttenahalli’ – then assistant commissioner of Jayanagar, Ashwath Ramaiah, entrusted JP Nagar sub-inspector Narasimha Murthy with the task of finding Anjanappa.

When cop turned cowherd

Shivaram recounts that Narasimha Murthy had a huge role in identifying Anjanappa. “He had got the details of people living in Puttenahalli and managed to identify Anjanappa, a bank employee. When questioned, Anjanappa – who rented out a house there – said that some people had come for rent and lived there for a few days. But they left without informing him when the news regarding the assassination came out. However, Anjanappa did reveal the name of one Ranganath who had helped them to get the house for rent,” Shivaram adds.

Shivaram says that the inputs provided by Narasimha Murthy, who has since passed away, were crucial in identifying Sivarasan. Murthy disguised himself as a cowherd. Through another cowherd, he received information that some people who were living in Anjanappa’s house had shifted abruptly. When the cowherd asked them why they were shifting, they said that the person living there had been transferred from his job. Interestingly, the reply was in Kannada, indicating to the police that a local person was part of team.

The local police had zeroed in on the house where Sivarasan lived with the others in Konanakunte. (Photo: K Gopinathan)

Murthy approached a goods carrier nearby which usually helped with shifting processes in the area. He was able to identify the man who transported the goods. It was found that the goods were shifted to a church in Vijayanagar. The police soon found that the priest at the church and the devotees were LTTE sympathisers. One of the workers at the church, Mridula, confirmed that Sivarasan had been there with others. Murthy also managed to find out that the families who dumped their goods at the church were living in Konanakunte.

Surrounding the house

It was August 18, 1991, a Sunday. The local police had zeroed in on the house where Sivarasan lived with the others in Konanakunte. One of the main sources of information was Muniyamma, a milk vendor who reported to the police that there were some suspicious people living in the house.

Shivaram says DCP Kempaiah called him over the phone to inform that there was an important operation. “Police sub-inspectors Ramesh Chandra, Balaji Singh, MC Srinivas, Eshwaran and Ramalingappa were part of the team.”

“Around 5 pm, we arrived in private cars and were in mufti. We were told not to go near the house as they were carrying AK-47s and hand grenades. We took cover and stayed nearby just to monitor their movements. Though we were interested in raiding, higher officials told us to stay alert till the CBI arrived,” he says.

But that plan did not go as intended. “Konanakunte was an isolated place during the 1990s. It did not have houses like today. While we waited, a platoon of the Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) also waited at a distance of one kilometre. It was raining heavily and we stayed there till 5 am,” he says.

The villagers, however, began noticing them sitting in odd places near the house. They started to gather and by then the media also got information. “By 5 pm on Monday, DCP Kempaiah arrived at the spot and I briefed him. We did not eat food or drink water for nearly 24 hours but kept an eye on them,” Shivaram adds.

“Around 7 pm on Tuesday evening, a truck carrying wood got stuck in rain water near the house. Someone from the house saw a police constable in uniform walking towards it. Suspecting that the police were cordoning them off, an LTTE member barged out and started firing,” he remembers. According to records, around 200 bullets were fired indiscriminately.

Shivaram recalls he along with five other personnel were sleeping behind a compound wall. “Hearing the bullet noise, we ducked. Then, Balaji Singh told me that something was wet near his stomach. I checked and found that a bullet had entered his abdomen. He was immediately shifted to the hospital. It was a challenge to take him out of that zone to the ambulance.”

Late at night, a special commando force arrived and took things into their hands. When the special commandos entered the house, they found LTTE members Shubha, Keerthi, Neru, Suresh Master, Amman, and Jamila had consumed cyanide and succumbed, while the leader Sivarasan had shot himself. The probe later revealed that the suspects had died a few hours earlier.

Conviction and aftermath

The CBI subsequently filed a chargesheet and in 1998, a special court sentenced 26 individuals, including Ranganath, to death for their involvement in the assassination. However, in 1999, the Supreme Court of India upheld the death sentences for only four convicts: Nalini Sriharan, her husband V Sriharan alias Murugan, A G Perarivalan, and T Suthendraraja alias Santhan. The sentences of the remaining convicts were commuted to life imprisonment or lesser terms.

Nalini appealed for clemency from Rajiv Gandhi’s widow and senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, and her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. In November 2022, Nalini, her husband Sriharan, Santhan, Robert Payas, and R P Ravichandran were released from prison. Sriharan, S Jeyakumar, and Robert Payas returned to Sri Lanka in April 2024.

Ranganath, who was arrested for sheltering LTTE members, passed away in 2017 due to health complications. He was running a realty firm after coming out of prison.

Incidentally, the residence in Konanakunte where Sivarasan and the other LTTE members stayed was converted into a police station and later the landlord rented it out to a school.