Kodanad case takes new turn after kin of accused name AIADMK leaders

Chennai, Sep 10 (IANS) The infamous Kodanad murder and heist case has taken a fresh turn after the brother of the first accused levelled allegations against AIADMK leaders, including party general secretary and former Chief Minister, Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS) and a group of other leaders.

C. Dhanabal, brother of C. Kanagaraj, the first accused who was killed in a road accident, levelled allegations that senior AIADMK leaders were involved in the Kodanad case.

On Saturday, AIADMK Salem sub district secretary, R. Elangovan complained to the police along with a few other party functionaries that his name was dragged into the Kodanad case by Dhanabal.

Elangovan said that Dhanabal was earlier arrested in the Kodanad case for destroying evidence and that he was making false allegations against him (Elangovan).

It may be recalled that the 900 acre Kodanad estate with a sprawling bungalow was jointly owned by late Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa and her aide and close associate V.K. Shashikala. After the passing away of Jayalalithaa in December 2016 and the arrest of Shashikala in February 2017, a burglary took place at Kodanad estate bungalow on April 23, 2017. During the burglary a security guard, Om Bahadur was killed and another guard Krishna Thapa was grievously injured.

According to the police, only a few artefacts were stolen from the estate bungalow. A few days after the burglary, the first accused in the case, C. Kanagaraj died in a road accident at the Salem- Madras highway when the two-wheeler in which he was travelling was hit by a truck. On the same day, the other accused Sayan met with an accident at Walayar in Palakkad when a car in which he was travelling was hit by a truck leading to the death of his wife and daughter.

The DMK had during its election campaign promised to reopen the Kodanad murder cum heist case and constituted a special police team to reinvestigate the case once it assumed office in May 2021.