Kodanad case: police file copies of statements collected from 314 persons before sessions court in Udhagamandalam

They were asked to join the probe by a special police team

The special police team investigating the Kodanad estate-dacoity-cum-murder case filed the copies of statements collected from 314 persons during their additional investigation before the district sessions court here on Monday.

The crime at the VVIP bungalow took place a few months after the death of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and the imprisonment of her close aide V.K. Sasikala.

Police sources said the more than 1,500-page document contains the statements of 314 persons who were asked to join the investigation which was launched by the special police team into the case. Five special police teams, headed by Inspector-General of Police (West Zone) R. Sudhakar, were formed to conduct a thorough investigation into the circumstances that led to the incident in April 2017, when a group of men — Sayan, ‘Walayar’ Manoj, Santhosh Samy, Deepu, Satheesan, Udhayakumar, Jithin Joy, Zamsheer Ali, Manoj Samy and Kutty alias Bijin — are alleged to have broken into the home of Jayalalithaa in Kodanad in Kil Kotagiri and escaped with valuables.

Sources said the police team had so far interrogated the ten accused as well as other key witnesses, including Dhanapal, the friend of one of the main accused, Kanagaraj, who died in an accident, the manager of the Kodanad estate, as well as Ms. Sasikala and former AIADMK MLA V.C. Arukutty.

The document handed over to the sessions court is believed to contain the statements made by all 314 persons interrogated.

Advocate K. Vijayan, who is representing some of the accused persons, stated that the prosecution had not furnished the defence with the copies of the statements which were handed over to the court, nor had they filed a status report. The Kodanad case was recently transferred to the Crime Branch-CID of the Tamil Nadu police in order to expedite the investigation. Officials said a copy of the statements will also be handed over to the CB-CID police.