Orders reserved on Kodanad accused bail cancellation plea

Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan before whom the plea came up on Monday and arguments presented on either side reserved orders without mentioning a date.

The duo in a joint petition had submitted that the bail granted way back in 2017 was cancelled, pursuant to the release of the documentary by New Delhi-based journalist Mathew Samuel, wherein they had given an interview stating that Kanagaraj, the mastermind behind the crime, had told him them that the heist was being carried out at the behest of Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who was interested in securing certain documents from the Estate.

It may be recalled that the murder of a watchman and heist in the Kodanad Estate, belonging to former chief minister J Jayalalithaa took place on the intervening night between April 23 and 24 of 2017. Four days later, Kanagaraj, died in a road accident.

Subsequently, Sayan too met with a road accident in which his wife and child died. Sayan was arrested on June 6, 2017 and released on bail on September 11, 2017. Similarly, Manoj got arrested on May 01, 2017 and obtained bail on December 15, 2017.

However, the state public prosecutor A Natarajan held that both Manoj and Sayan have various murder and criminal cases pending against them in Kerala. Exploiting their criminal background, journalist Mathew Samuel who is known for threatening bureaucrats and political leaders in the guise of sting operations, had come up with false allegations against the Chief Minister.

Moreover, bail can’t be extended to those who failed to abide by the bail conditions and based on these aspects, The Nilgiris District judge had cancelled the bail granted to them, the prosecutor said and sought the court to uphold the cancellation of bail to the duo.