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Police can further probe Kodanad case, rules Madras high court
Justice M Nirmal Kumer passed the orders while dismissing a petition filed by prosecution witness N Ravi seeking a direction to police to stop conducting fresh investigations
In another setback for former Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami, the Madras high court on Friday gave the go-ahead to police to conduct further investigation in the 2017 Kodanad heist-cum-murder case which is currently in the trial stage.
Justice M Nirmal Kumer passed the orders while dismissing a petition filed by prosecution witness N Ravi seeking a direction to police to stop conducting fresh investigations.
The court said the petitioner has no locus standi to oppose further investigations. The petitioner, who is also the joint secretary of AIADMK’s wing Amma Peravai in Coimbatore district had also sought for the trial at the Nilgiris sessions court to be fast-tracked and conducted on a day-to-day basis.
Though Palaniswami is not a party in the case, the order is seen as a setback for him as he has repeatedly claimed that the DMK has begun fresh investigations to frame him and other AIADMK leaders.
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In 2019, key accused KV Sayan alleged Palaniswami’s involvement in the crime. The DMK had then sought Palaniswami’s resignation even as the latter had denied the charge. This August 17, Nilgiris police questioned Sayan, leading to a political and legal slugfest in the state. Palaniswami alleged that a ‘secret statement’ was taken from Sayan to frame him. He even led a walkout from the assembly, and complained to Governor Banwarilal Purohit.
Dismissing AIADMK’s allegations of a political vendetta, chief minister MK Stalin has said it was DMK’s election promise to bring the real culprits of Kodanad case to book. The advocate general of the state, R Shanmugasundaram reiterated in court today that there is no political motive.
Besides the witnesses’ plea seeking a stay on further investigations, three out of the ten accused in the case also approached the Madras high court asking for Palaniswami and V K Sasikala who co-owned the estate with late J Jayalalithaa to be questioned.
The case also came up at the trial court in Nilgiris on Friday where Sayan was produced but the court decided to defer the hearing as Ravi’s plea was being heard in the high court. The trial court’s next hearing is on September 2.
The next hearing in the trial court is on September 2.
There are several unanswered questions in the four-year-old case. The 900-acre Kodanad tea estate in Nilgiris was Jayalalithaa’s summer retreat. She purchased it with her close confidante Sasikala and her family in the 1990s.
On the intervening night of April 23 and 24, there was a break-in and the estate’s security guard was murdered. Two of the accused met with road accidents where Jayalalithaa’s former driver C Kanagaraj also died. Sayan escaped with serious injuries, but his wife and daughter died on the spot. The charge sheet stated that wristwatches and a rhinoceros miniature were stolen from the estate. This raised questions on the motive as the accused were found to have gone to the estate in high-end SUVs.
