Three accused in sensational Kodanad heist-murder case have filed a plea with the Madras High Court seeking to conduct probes against former chief minister of Tamil Nadu K Palaniswami, expelled AIADMK leader and late J Jayalalithaa’s close aide V K Sasikala, among others.
The criminal revision petition has been filed by three accused – Deepu, MS Satheesan, and A Samthosh Samy, who are currently undergoing trial at the session court in the Nilgiris, along with seven others who have been named in the charge-sheet in the case. All of them hailing from Kerala, the accused, according to the chargesheet, have been involved in the murder of a security guard and theft of valuables from the Kodanad bungalow of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
In the petition, a copy of which has been reviewed by CNN-News18, the three accused have claimed that the “proceedings of the trail at the Nilgiris court was influenced and monitored by the persons holding power in the former ruling party…,” referring to the AIADMK.
The petition also stated that the police inquired only 41 witnesses when over a hundred were cited in its list, the death of the family of one of the accused in an accident, instances of political pressure to the key accused Sayan, conduct of trial in a “hurried manner,” the appointment of an AIADMK-related person as the lawyer for one of the accused, and several other alleged irregularities.
In the criminal revision petition, the three accused have sought an order to examine the following witnesses: Palaniswami, Sasikala, Murali Rambha, former SP of The Nilgiris, Sasikala’s relatives J Ilavarasi and NV Sudhakaran, AIADMK state organiser—Nilgiris Sanjeevan, the manager of the Kodanadu estate Natarajan, and others.
The petition also noted that a similar plea was made before a judge of the sessions court, Nilgiris but he passed an order in April this year, days before the DMK swept to power, disallowing the examination of all but the manager of the Kodanadu bungalow. The petition filed by Deepu, Satheesan and Santhosh Samy also sought the Madras High court to set aside the sessions court order of April 2021, and enable the examination of Palaniswami and Sasikala.
The Kodanad murder-heist case was brought under the spotlight by the DMK government, which recently said it would go deeper into the details. Palaniswami, along with a host of AIADMK leaders protested against the move and called it a “political vendetta”.
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