Kodanad Murder & Heist Case: TN Police Continues Questioning Sasikala on Friday

The probe is regarding the murder and heist that took place at the 906-acre Kodanad estate on 24 April 2017.

A special team from the Tamil Nadu Police continued questioning All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)'s former general secretary VK Sasikala over the Kodanad heist and murder case for the second consecutive day on Friday, 22 April.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A special team from the Tamil Nadu Police continued questioning All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)'s former general secretary VK Sasikala over the Kodanad heist and murder case for the second consecutive day on Friday, 22 April.

The six-member team led by Western Zone Inspector General, R Sudhakaran, and comprising five other officers, had questioned Sasikala at her T-Nagar residence for more than six hours on Thursday.

Sasikala, who was the close aide of late chief minister Jayalalithaa, told reporters on Thursday evening that she would address the media in detail about the interrogation after Friday's questioning.

Background

The probe is regarding the murder and heist that took place at the 906-acre Kodanad estate in the Nilgiris district on 24 April 2017, four months after Jayalalithaa's passing. The estate was co-owned by Jayalalithaa and Sasikala.

Sasikala was serving her jail term at the Bengaluru central prison in the disproportionate assets case when the incident happened at the estate.

In its 300-page charge sheet filed in September that year, police had booked as many as 11 people in the case with Kanagaraj, the driver of the late leader, as the main accused. While Kanagaraj was from Tamil Nadu, the rest were from Kerala.

What Had Happened?

On 23 April 2017, Kanagaraj led a group of 10 people and broke into the estate and killed a guard, Om Bahadhur. Another guard, Krishna Thapa, was attacked and tied up by the gang, following which they stole 10 watches and a crystal replica of rhinoceros worth Rs 42,000.

Sources from the police said that Kanagaraj had convinced another accused, Sayan, that Rs 200 crore was stashed in the estate bungalow, reported IANS.

Five days after the incident, Kanagraj was mysteriously killed in a road accident on the Salem-Chennai highway, and on the same day, the second accused, Sayan, and his family met with a road accident at Palakkad in Kerala. While Sayan escaped with injuries, his wife and daughter were killed.

Dinesh Kumar, who was the computer operator at the Kodanad estate, was found hanging at his residence on 3 July 2017, taking the death toll following the robbery to five.

Speaking at an interview with a journalist, the second accused Sayan and another accused Manoj had said that then chief minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami had ordered the break-in of the Kodanad estate to search for some important documents.

The three accused had also moved the court, seeking the interrogation of EPS, Sasikala, then Nilgiris collector, and then district police chief. Police has already questioned Sasikala's nephew Vivek Jayaraman in the case.

According to sources from Tamil Nadu Police, more people are likely to be questioned in the coming days.

(With inputs from IANS.)