No clarity on extension of MDMA; CBI sends reminder

The fate of the Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA), constituted within the CBI to probe the conspiracy angle in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, seems stuck with the mandarins of the ministry of the home affairs (MHA).

A year after its term came to an end and it sought an extension, the MHA has not yet decided either way.

Sources said that all the clarification and queries sought by the ministry have been furnished, but the final word was awaited.

“Since its inception as a dedicated unit probing the high-profile political assassination, it is for the first time that the term of the MDMA, which came to end on May 31, 2015, has still not been formally extended. It is functioning without any formal approval for the last one year,” sources said. The CBI has sent a fresh reminder to the MHA in this regard, they added.

The unit was set up 17 years ago but is yet to wrap up its probe into the wider conspiracy angle in the assassination of the former PM. The panel comprises experts from the CBI and other Central agencies. The MDMA, running on a skeleton staff, was set up on the recommendation of retired judge Milap Chand Jain, whose own inquiry into the conspiracy theory was called off in 1998.