NEW DELHI, Nov 17: At least six crucial files relating to the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case have been `lost' or tampered with by Narasimha Rao's Prime Minister's Office (PMO), a weekly magazine has reported.

According to its investigations, controversial tantrik Chandraswami, in cahoots with Rao, was involved in a massive cover up of details crucial to the case.

In the latest issue of Outlook, the magazine claims that the files that vanished from the PMO detailed, among other things, a clutch of classified intelligence documents containing messages of the LTTE that were intercepted immediately prior to the May 21, 1991 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.

One file is said to have contained messages, intercepted by foreign intelligence agencies, that were addressed to Chandraswami and Subramaniam Swamy. Most crucially, one such intercepted message posed the question: Should Rajiv be killed in Delhi or Madras, the magazine reports.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.