Chennai, (Samajweekly) AIADMK’s former interim General Secretary V.K. Sasikala, who was a close aide of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, on Friday called for stringent action against the accused in the Kodanad estate murder and heist case.
In a statement after two days of quizzing by the special police team investigating the case, she said that she was interrogated on April 21-22, had answered all the questions and cooperated fully with the police.
“Kodanad may be an ordinary place for others, but for me and the members of AIADMK, it is a temple as my sister (Jayalalithaa) loved the place very much and stayed there. The place had given her a lot of happiness and peace.”
“In addition, to the murder of our guard Om Bahadhur, a mother and child also lost life in an accident which is suspicious. My request to the police is that they conduct a proper investigation and whoever is involved must be given stringent punishment. I demand justice for the death of our guard Om Bahadhur and the child and the mother.”
The 906-acre summer residence of Jayalalithaa, the Kodanad estate at the Nilgiris, was jointly owned by Jayalalithaa and Sasikala. On August 23, 2017, four months after the passing away of Jayalalithaa, burglars broke into the Kodanad estate and murdered the guard.
Another guard, Krisha Thapa was several beaten and his hand and foot tied and the burglars decamped with ten watches and a crystal memento of Rhinoceros costing Rs 42,000.
The first accused in the case Kanagaraj, who was the former driver of Jayalalithaa, died in a road accident at the Salem-Chennai highway five days after the heist. On the same day in another accident at Kerala’s Palakkad, the second accused Sayan’s car met with an accident in which he escaped but his wife and daughter were killed. A few months later in June 2017, Dinesh Kumar, a computer operator at the estate, committed suicide at his residence.
The case had turned murkier after three accused moved court demanding interrogation of Sasikala, former Chief Minister Palaniswami, the then District Collector of the Nilgiris, and the then-District Superintendent of Police.
A special team under the Western Zone Inspector General of Police, R. Sudhakar, and five other officers quizzed Sasikala at her T- Nagar residence on April 21 and April 22.
