The four-year-old case involving a break-in at former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s Kodanad Estate in the picturesque Nilgiris district has come back to haunt Tamil Nadu’s principal Opposition AIADMK.
The new DMK government’s decision to reopen the 2017 case and re-examine key accused, Sayan, reverberated in the Assembly on Wednesday with AIADMK legislators alleging “political vendetta” and staging a walkout after not being allowed to raise the issue in the House.
Outside the Kalaivanar Arangam, where the temporary Assembly Hall is situated, former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami alleged that the DMK was trying to “frame me and a few functionaries” of the AIADMK in the case. He also accused the DMK and Chief Minister M K Stalin of “reopening the case” out of “political vendetta” to settle scores with the AIADMK.
Responding to allegations levelled by members of AIADMK and alliance partners PMK and BJP, Stalin said the re-investigation is taking place with “due permission” from the court and there was no “political angle” in the new development. “This is not a political vendetta. The DMK in its election manifesto promised to send real culprits behind the Kodanad break-in to jail. We will ensure that justice is served in the case. Nobody has to fear this case,” Stalin told the Assembly.
Kodanad was the summer retreat of Jayalalithaa since she and her long-time aide V K Sasikala bought the sprawling bungalow in Kothagiri in the early 1990s. The former chief minister would visit the bungalow often when her party, AIADMK, was occupying the Opposition benches in the Assembly.
Quoting media reports, Palaniswami said the Nilgiris district police has once again examined Sayan, one of the prime accused, at a time the case was nearing completion.
“What is the need to re-investigate Sayan? We feel the DMK government is trying to frame me and a few other AIADMK functionaries in the case. This is nothing but politics. The DMK is trying to take political mileage out of this case,” Palaniswami alleged. Party coordinator O Panneerselvam said the AIADMK will boycott the assembly session on Thursday. The two leaders are expected to meet Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Thursday and discuss the issue.
Sayan and nine others are accused of breaking into the sprawling mansion owned by Jayalalithaa in 2017, months after her death, and killing a guard who was posted there. Police had then alleged that C Kanagaraj, Jayalalithaa’s former driver, and Sayan plotted the crime.
However, Kanagaraj, Sayan’s wife and their daughter died in separate road accidents, raising doubts. An “independent investigation” conducted by journalist Mathew Samuel alleged that Palaniswami was behind the break-in, but the former Chief Minister had steered clear of the issue, saying vested interests were trying to bring “disrepute” to him and Jayalalithaa.
During the press interaction on Wednesday, Palaniswami sought to know why lawyers associated with the DMK appeared on behalf of the accused in the case. “DMK leaders applied for bail for the accused. Now DMK men are government lawyers and they have reopened the case. What is the connection between DMK men and the accused in the case?” he asked.