New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday put a query why no proceedings were initiated against controversial godman Chandraswami if the government really suspected him of funding the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by LTTE.
"If he has funded the assassination, then why did you not proceed against him?" a vacation bench of Justices V S Sirpurkar and R M Lodha asked ED's counsel Wasim Ahmed Qadri.
The bench made the passing reference after the ED opposed Chandraswami's plea to travel abroad on the ground that he had several criminal cases registered against him and is suspected of funding the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
Senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for the controversial godman, however, told the court that Chandraswami was never an accused in the case unlike the slain LTTE chief V Prabhakaran and others like the organisation's intelligence wing chief Pottu Amman.
To another query from the bench, Quadri said it appears the case against Prabahakaran might be closed in India in view of his killing by the Sri Lankan Army.
Rohtagi earlier strongly pleaded that Chandraswami be permitted to travel abroad as he had been acquitted of all the criminal cases registered against him, except the nine-odd cases registered against him by ED.