By TN Gopalan BBC Tamil service, Chennai

The government issued the photos of LTTE leader Prabhakaran's body but the Pottu Amman's body has never been discovered

The order issued by a court in the southern Indian city of Chennai is the first official acknowledgment of the death of Prabhakaran by India.

“The case against the absconding accused A1 Prabhakaran and A2 Pottu Amman, alias Shanmuganathan Sivasankaran, is hereby dropped and the charges against them ordered abated,” ruled designated judge K Dakshinamurthy a couple of weeks ago.

Under Indian law, charges against the accused abate automatically on their death.

But even after Sri Lanka announced the the death of Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman last year, the case against them continued to drag on in the case under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA).

Amirthalingam murder

But after a Lankan court was asked to drop the charges against the duo in the case relating to the assassination of TULF leader Appapillai Amirthalingam, the CBI’s Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA), too followed suit in the Rajiv Gandhi case.

	Nalini's death sentence has been commuted to a life imprisonment

But the Chennai TADA court insisted on a death certificate or some other documentary proof to order closure. That was some six months ago.

But in September, the MDMA filed a ‘modified’ report, again based on the Sri Lankan government’s disclosures, following which the Chennai court has ordered the dropping of the charges.

No one in the CBI or from the court were available for comments.

On May 21, 1991, Rajiv Gandhi and 16 others were killed in a bomb attack in Sriperumbudur.

While Prabakaran and Pottu Amman were declared absconding and the trial against them was to proceed separately, 26 others indicted in the case were sentenced to death by the TADA court in January 1998.

Subsequently in May 11, 1999, the Supreme Court confirmed death only for four persons - Nalini, Murugan (in pic), Santhan and Perarivalan.

The others were sentenced to varying terms. In 2000, Nalini’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the apex court.

The CBI’s Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency was formed in 1998 to probe the wider conspiracy behind the former prime minister’s assassination.

The agency got 11 tenure extensions so far, the last one in August 2009.

Even now, after the dropping of the charges against Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman, the TADA court has said the MDMA could continue to exist and file progress reports periodically.

“In view of the special request made by the superintendent/chief investigating officer, CBI/MDMA, New Delhi, further investigation accorded by this court in criminal MP No. 1/1999 in CC 11/1992 shall be continued and they are directed to file further progress report,” presidisng judge Dakshinamurthy said.