JOIN USAIADMK leaders ask Governor Banwarilal Purohit to intervene in Kodanad case
Tamil Nadu’s principal Opposition party, AIADMK, on Thursday knocked at the doors of Governor Banwarilal Purohit complaining that the DMK government was “culling the voice of opposition dissent” by foisting false cases against its members, including reopening of the Kodanad break-in case.
A high-level AIADMK delegation led by coordinator O Panneerselvam and joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami submitted a five-page memorandum against the DMK government dubbing its agenda as “Corruption-Collection Vendetta.” The meeting with Purohit assumes significance as it came a day after Palaniswami alleged that the new DMK government was trying to frame in the 2017 case involving heist-cum-murder at the sprawling Kodanad estate owned by J Jayalalithaa.
The AIADMK has boycotted the assembly proceedings on August 18 and 19 in protest against the DMK’s move to reinvestigate the four-year-old case. The prime accused in the case, Sayan, had alleged that Palaniswami was involved in the case, a charge strongly refuted by the former CM.
Besides the Kodanad case, the AIADMK leaders also drew Governor’s attention to “false cases” being filed against former ministers to intimidate them.
“The present drama of further investigation which has been sought for collusively by the prosecution and the accused is only to make allegations against the Leader of Opposition. The fate of a common citizen in the hands of the present Government is completely jeopardised if a Leader of Opposition is being targeted in such a manner,” the memorandum said.
Change of stance by the prosecution is also to be seen in the cases against the present ministers of the DMK Government, the leaders said, adding that the Public Prosecutor in the High Court has been completely lenient in making his objections in cases against the present ministers. Both the Public Prosecutor and Advocate General are DMK men, the leaders noted.
Palaniswami also alleged that the DMK was “ably and illegally influencing” the official machinery to bring a quietus to the pending criminal cases against its own members and leaders.
“Such being the strategy played out by the government, as the Constitutional Head, your Excellency, in the interest of protecting the state and the democracy in the state ought to call for the records on the above issues, investigate and take necessary action in the interest of welfare of the state,” Palaniswami and Panneerselvam said in the memorandum.
Kodanad was the summer retreat of Jayalalithaa since she and her long-time aide V K Sasikala bought the sprawling bungalow in Kothagiri in early 1990s. The former chief minister would visit the bungalow often when her party, AIADMK, was occupying the Opposition benches in the
Sayan and nine others are accused of breaking into the sprawling mansion owned by Jayalalithaa in 2017, months after her death, and killing a guard who was posted there. Police had then alleged that C Kanagaraj, Jayalalithaa’s former driver, and Sayan plotted the crime.
However, Kanagaraj, Sayan’s wife and their daughter died in separate road accidents, raising doubts.