Nilgiris police fast-track Kodanad case

Four years after an armed gang broke into the sprawling Kodanad Estate in the Nilgiris jointly owned by late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and her long-time aide V K Sasikala, the Nilgiris District Police have launched a reinvestigation into the break-in and other deaths related to the incident.

Efforts by ‘Anubhav’ Ravi, a witness in the case and an office-bearer of Nilgiris district AIADMK, to stall the reinvestigation have failed with the Supreme Court dismissing his plea seeking a stay on the fresh probe into the Kodanad break-in-cum-murder case. Ravi had knocked at the doors of the Supreme Court after the Madras High Court rejected a similar plea, maintaining that truth should come out in the case.

Supreme Court refusing to interfere in the police’s decision to reinvestigate the sensational case comes as a setback to former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami who has alleged that the new DMK government was trying to “frame” him in the case.

Palaniswami had also led AIADMK MLAs in staging a walkout from the Assembly and petitioned Governor Banwarilal Purohit in this regard. His name had cropped up in the case in 2019 after the second accused, Sayan, alleged in 2019 that the then Chief Minister was involved in the case.

However, Palaniswami had rejected the claims, though there was all-around criticism that the investigation into the case was botched up. The DMK had in its election manifesto included a “fair probe” into the case in the list of promises.

Sources in the Nilgiris police told DH that reinvestigation will be launched into the break-in at Kodanad Estate, the mysterious death of main accused Kanagaraj, a former driver of Jayalalithaa, and a suicide of the systems manager at the estate.

“The court orders are clear that we should get to the bottom of the case. The reinvestigation is on, and we have formed special teams for the purpose,” a senior police official said, adding that they have begun questioning the accused and others related to the case. The district police are likely to present a report on the fresh investigation in the case before the sessions judge when the case comes up for hearing on October 1.

The heist-cum-murder at the Kodanad Estate in April 2017 is shrouded in mystery as Kanagaraj was killed in a road accident a few days after the incident and Sayan’s wife and daughter also lost their lives in an accident in Kerala. A few months later, the systems engineer at the estate was found hanging at his residence in Salem district.

Kodanad was the summer retreat of Jayalalithaa since she and her long-time aide V K Sasikala bought the sprawling bungalow in Kothagiri in the early 1990s. The former chief minister would visit the bungalow often when her party, AIADMK, was occupying the Opposition benches in the assembly.

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.

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