Kodanad case: TN Police team to reinvestigate prime suspect's death in 'accident'

A Special team of the Tamil Nadu Police will reinvestigate the accidental death of the prime suspect in the Kodanad estate murder and heist case, Kanakaraj as also the suicide of the estate employee, Dhinesh Kumar.

The state police have constituted five teams to conduct the investigation in the case and each team will probe a separate case involving the accidental death of Kanagaraj, suicide of Dhinesh as well as the accidental death of the first accused K.P. Sayan's wife and daughter in Kerala.

Assistant Superintendent of Police, Krishnamoorthy has already interrogated Shaji, a Keralite, who is the uncle of the 10th accused in the case, Jithin Jose. The interrogation lasted for more than five hours on Monday at the Udhagamandalam police station in Nilgiris district. The police team, according to sources, will question the brother of the deceased Kanagaraj, Dhanabal, and estate manager Natarajan.

The police team will also travel to Kerala to inquire about the road accident and subsequent death of the first accused, K.P. Sayan's wife and daughter.

The Kodanad estate was jointly owned by former Chief Minister late J. Jayalalithaa and her close aide and former interim general secretary of AIADMK, V.K. Sasikala. Immediately after Sasikala was arrested and imprisoned in a case related to amassing wealth beyond the means of income, a gang broke into the Kodanad estate in the early hours of April 24, 2017, and murdered the watchman Om Bahadur and injured another watchman Krishna Bahadur.

The prime accused in the case, Kanagaraj died in a road accident and in another subsequent road accident, the wife and daughter of the first accused, K.P. Sayan passed away. The injured watchman, Krishna Bahadur had left for Nepal and was untraceable after that.

A few days after these accidents, an employee of the estate, Dhinesh Kumar who was in-charge of the CCTV, Dhinesh Kumar, committed suicide.

Interestingly the police could recover only five old watches and an idol as the booty from the heist and there were allegations that several documents pertaining to the deposits of Jayalalithaa and Sasikala were missing from the estate.

The DMK has made the reinvestigation of Kodanad estate murder and heist as a poll issue and after it regained power, the government ordered for reopening of the cases. 

The AIADMK has alleged that the DMK was into political vindictiveness and aimed at tarnishing the image of former Chief Minister and senior AIADMK leader K. Palaniswami.

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had countered this and said in the Tamil Nadu legislative Assembly that the government does not have any political vendetta or vindictiveness against anybody and that the law would take its own course.