Chennai:
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has alleged that the DMK was linked with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in an "indirect way."
"That has been our basic charge since a long time. We have always said DMK was behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in an indirect way," the AIADMK chief told reporters in Chennai. She was responding to queries on reported remarks of Pathmanathan, leader of the now decimated LTTE, that the DMK's ideology (of anti-Brahminism) could have influenced the outfit to kill Gandhi.
Known for her hard-line against LTTE, Jayalalithaa said threats from the outfit were not new to her. Jayalalithaa was responsible for adoption of a resolution in the Tamil Nadu Assembly during her 1991-96 rule demanding arrest and extradition of slain LTTE founder, V Prabhakaran,
"I have been living with death threats since 1991 (when Gandhi was assassinated). This is nothing new," she said on Pathmanathan's claim that his outfit had tried to target her also.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a human bomb at Sriperumbuthur on May 21, 1991, by LTTE, which was outlawed subsequently.