Edappadi K Palaniswami wins defamation case against brother of Kodanad heist-cum-murder case accused

Chennai: Madras High Court on Thursday ordered C Dhanapal, the elder brother of the prime accused in the Kodanad heist-cum-murder case, to pay Rs 1.10 crores in damages to AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami for defamatory statements.

Dhanapal, the brother of Kanagaraj who died in a road accident days after the heist at late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s summer retreat in The Nilgiris, had made statements linking Palaniswami with the burglary that took place in April 2017.

Justice R M T Teekaa Raman restrained Dhanapal from making “defamatory statements” against Palaniswami. The judge passed orders on a civil suit filed by Palaniswami, former CM, accusing Dhanapal of having caused “great damage” to his reputation and four decades of political life by spreading canards against him.

Dhanapal, who was also arrested in the case, had told reporters in 2023 that Palaniswami, and three of his close associates, including two former ministers, had “brainwashed” his brother Kanagaraj to commit the crime. Kanagaraj used to drive Jayalalithaa’s car in Kodanad.

Kodanad was the summer retreat of Jayalalithaa since she and her long-time aide V K Sasikala bought the sprawling bungalow in Kothagiri in early 1990s. The former chief minister would visit the bungalow often when her party, AIADMK, was occupying the Opposition benches in the Assembly.

In April 2017, five months after Jayalalithaa’s death, the bungalow was in the news yet again. A group of men, allegedly led by Jayalalithaa’s driver Kanagaraj, entered the premises forcibly after killing a security guard and grievously injuring another to rob off “valuables.”

The break-in sent shock waves across Tamil Nadu as Jayalalithaa’s favourite bungalow was attacked under AIADMK rule. The incidents that followed – death of Kanagaraj and wife and daughter of one of the prime accused Sayan in separate road accidents and suspected suicide of a staff of the estate – deepened the mystery.

Political parties like DMK have been alleging that investigations into the Kodanad case were not done properly under the then AIADMK regime. The Nilgiris police reopened the case after DMK came to power prompting Palaniswami to allege that the ruling party was trying to “frame me” in the case.