The Kodanad heist-cum-murder case has been transferred to the Crime Branch-CID of the Tamil Nadu police to expedite investigation. Tamil Nadu Director General of Police (DGP) C Sylendra Babu issued orders transferring the case to the CB-CID on Friday, September 30, a senior official told PTI. After the death of late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in December 2016 and the arrest of her aide Sasikala in February 2017, a group of men barged into the Kodanad estate bungalow on the intervening night of April 23-24, 2017. During the dacoity, a guard at the estate, Om Bahadhur, was killed while the other guard, Krishna Thapa, was grievously injured.
Four days after the murder and heist, the main accused in the case, Kanagarajan who was the driver of Jayalalithaa, was killed on the Salem-Chennai highway. On the same day, another accused Sayan met with an accident at Palakkad when a truck rammed into his car when he was travelling with his family including his wife and daughter. While his wife and daughter were instantly killed, Sayan escaped with minor injuries.
A few months after these incidents, Dileep Kumar, the computer operator of the estate bungalow, died by suicide at his residence. Manoj, one of the accused in the case, moved the Madras High Court seeking to speed up the case. Six people fled to Kerala via Gudalur after the crime was committed, police had said.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) had during its election campaign announced that it would bring to light the real facts behind the Kodanad estate murder and subsequent deaths. After assuming office in May 2021, Chief Minister MK Stalin announced the reopening of the case, and an investigation was being carried out with a special team of the state police interrogating new suspects. A special team of Tamil Nadu police questioned late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's driver Kannan for several hours on June 28 and June 29, sources in the police told IANS.
With PTI and IANS inputs
Watch: How BJP's Raja Singh gets away with hate speech and other cases