Tanu (2nd from left), who assassinated Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The event managers did not have enough material to put up cordons.
A police instruction to maintain at least 50 meters of distance between the dais and the audience was also ignored. Rajiv Gandhi was expected to garland a bust of his mother and predecessor, Indira Gandhi, before walking up to the stage. Iqbal was one of the victims of the blast. He said that the organisers should be held responsible for any eventuality. The superintendent of police was nonplussed. Philip immediately called up his superior to apprise him of the situation. Philip tried but Congress leaders said that they were expecting tens of thousands of people and they could not be accommodated on the school ground. The superintendent of police told Philip that the new venue was a logistical nightmare and they better stick to the original plan. The meeting was originally scheduled to be held at the Sriperumbudur school ground, but it was later shifted to a much bigger temple ground.
The top officer was concerned about a change in the venue of the Congress meeting. He had received a call from Kanchipuram superintendent of police Muhammed Iqbal the day before. It was his first posting after the completion of IPS training. Philip was one of the officers assigned the security duty of the former prime minister. He was driven to the campaign venue at Sriperumbudur, 40 kilometres off Chennai. He reached Chennai around 8.30 pm, two hours behind schedule but still on time for his tragic appointment. He was on the way to the Vishakhapatnam guest house after campaigning in that city when he received a message that the aircraft's problem had been rectified. Hours earlier, the Congress star campaigner almost cancelled his Chennai trip due to a technical snag in the flight which was supposed to carry him from Visakhapatnam in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Rajiv Gandhi's whirlwind tour of the country took him to Chennai as well. The country was in the middle of a heated election campaign. The Chennai suburb refused to shake off the summer heat even after dusk fell.