It was on April 24, 2017 that Om Bahadur, a watchman who worked at former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s sprawling estate in Kodanad was found murdered by a gang of robbers. Four years later, this murder and two subsequent accidents in which one of the main accused in the robbery was killed, the issue has once again taken centre stage in Tamil Nadu. The state’s Assembly witnessed heated arguments and a walkout by the AIADMK on August 18 alleging that the DMK was trying to implicate them falsely for the robbery and murders.
The walk-out follows the issuing of fresh summons issued by the Nilgiris police to a man named Sayan who is ‘accused no 2’ in the case. Quoting West zone IG R Sudhakar, TNIE reported that permission had been sought last week from a trial court to conduct further investigations. The case is expected to come up on August 27 and the AIADMK now seems wary that a few leaders including Edappadi Palanisamy (EPS) may be ‘falsely’ implicated.
The former chief minister and AIADMK party chief EPS staged a walkout disrupting the assembly proceedings today when the case came up for discussion. EPS, former deputy chief minister OPS and party cadres also protested outside the legislative assembly building. Addressing the media, EPS alleged that Sayan had been summoned and a secret statement taken from him by the police. He further alleged that his name and those of other AIADMK leaders had been added in the secret statement, adding that the investigation had been nearing closure before this and that case was supposed to come up before the court on the 28th of this month. He cited news media sources for these allegations. He also said that any developments at this point were a targeted attack by the DMK government formed under the leadership of MK Stalin.
The source of these allegations by EPS is unclear as there does not appear to be any reports regarding a statement, secret or otherwise, from Sayan or that the names of EPS or any in the AIADMK leadership have been added. In April 2017, Sayan who hails from Kerala was identified as the leader of the gang that broke-in and murdered the guard, however, even as the police were searching for him, Sayan’s car met with an accident and his daughter and wife died.The first accused in the case, Jayalalithaa’s former driver named Kanakaraj was also mysteriously killed in a similar accident.
In 2019, Samuel Matthew, a former editor at Tehelka, had released a short documentary accusing EPS of having contracted the burglary. At the time the AIADMK had been in power. The allegations in the documentary rocked Tamil Nadu. Stalin, then the Opposition leader, met with the Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit, demanding the President of India be made aware of the situation. Addressing the media after meeting the governor, Stalin had also demanded that EPS step down as CM to make way for a fair trial. No further actions were taken following these events.
Responding to the walk-out by EPS and AIADMK cadres, Chief Minister MK Stalin said in the assembly that they were only following through on their election promise to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding the Kodanad case and that none of this was politically motivated. “The robbery and murder that took place that midnight, the murders and accidental deaths in the following days created a great deal of suspicion in the public-mind. That was why we promised that the case would be properly investigated and the real culprits brought to justice,” he said. Stalin also said that the case was proceeding with permission from the court, that only those who are found to be guilty will face punishment and that there is no reason for anyone else to be fearful.