Home Minister Refuting His Own Agency Report

India's Home Minister Shri P Chidambaram, refuted his own central agencies remarks, and said that the union government received the death certificate of LTTE leader Veluppilai Prabhakaran from Sri Lankan government.

Prabhakaran,who is the prime accused in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, who was brutaly killed by LTTE human bomber in 1991 at Sriperumbutur near Chennai, while came to attend election raly.

"The CBI has told me that they received the documentation from the Sri Lankan government confirming the death of Prabhakaran," he told mediapersons in reply to a query.

Asked if cases against Prabhakaran would be closed, Mr Chidambaram said logical consequences will follow.

Lankan forces had recovered the body of Prabhakaran on May 18 last year.

Last Week,the matter had come up when the CBI in a reply under the Right to Information Act, had said it had not received his death certificate.

"Immediately after coming to know about the death of Prabhakaran, the proclaimed offender in the (Rajiv Gandhi assassination) case, CBI has taken up the matter with authorities concerned in Sri Lanka through diplomatic channels for supplying authenticated copy of his death certificate, which is still awaited," the reply read.

It also said "both the governments are regularly in touch with each other for expediting enquiries into certain aspects of the case pending with the Government of Sri Lanka."

While it is true that the Sri Lankan government has not handed over to India LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran's "death certificate" as such, it has handed over a document testifying to his death, which is admissible in a court of law, an Indian official said.

Such a document relating to Prabhakaran's death had been handed over to a Sri Lankan court in September 2009, when the case relating to the assassination of Sri Lanka's former Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, was taken up for trial there, the official said.

"The death certificate is no longer an issue," he maintained.

The absence of a death cer tificate in the case of Prabhakaran came up again this weekend, when, as a result of a request under the Right to - Information Act, the Central s Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said that it had not received his death certificate.

B N Mishra, Superintendent of Police (SP) at the Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA), under the d CBI to investigate the case, said that the matter was being pursued through the diplomatic channel.

"Both the governments are regularly in - touch with each other for ex pediting enquiries into certain aspects of the case pending with the Government of - Sri Lanka," the CBI said.

Home Minister Chidambaram categorically cleared the clouds over the death of Prabhakaran.

- Asian Tribune -