Kodanad heist-cum-murder case transferred to Crime Branch-CID

CHENNAI: The Kodanad heist-cum-murder case has been transferred to the Crime Branch-CID in order to expedite the case.

"Tamil Nadu DGP C Sylendra Babu issued orders transferring the case to the CB-CID on Friday," the official said.

The case pertains to the Kodanad Estate owned jointly by former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and her close aide V.K. Sasikala.

In April 2017, when Edappadi K. Palaniswami was the Chief Minister, a burglary was reported in the estate.

In the course of the burglary, the accused had hacked watchman Om Bahadur to death.

Another watchman had sustained grievous injuries.

Days later, the former driver of Jayalalitha, C. Kanagaraj who was the prime accused died in a road accident.

Another accused, K.V. Sayan, escaped narrowly from a similar road accident. A CCTV operator at the Estate too died by suicide.

The police completed the investigation and filed a final report before a Judicial Magistrate at Kotagiri On November 29, 2017, the police filed a final report before a Judicial Magistrate at Kotagiri after the investigation into the case.

Thereafter, the case was committed to the Sessions Court at Udhagamandalam and the latter took it on file on January 4, 2018.

Charges were framed against the accused on October 31, 2019. The police suddenly decided to conduct further investigation into the case after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) assumed power in the State.

Since August 2021, the trial court had been regularly adjourning the case at the request of the police though no progress whatsoever had been reported regarding the further investigation.

Supreme Court in January 2019 while hearing the petition filed by social activist KR Ramaswamy had dismissed a petition seeking a CBI probe into the Kodanad estate case.