Chennai: The Kodanand murder-heist case probe which moved at snail's pace has made arrests for the first time. A special team of Tamil Nadu has arrested key accused Dhanapal, brother of late Kanagaraj and driver of former Chief Minister J Jayalalitha. Another accused Ramesh was also arrested along with him for his alleged involvement in heist and murder.
The duo was produced before a court in Gudalur and remanded in judicial custody till November 8. The case was registered under Section IPC 201, 204, and 120 (B).
Costly items like watches and a crystal rhinoceros figurine in the Kodanad estate in Nilgiris district were robbed off and security guard Om Bahadur was killed in April 2017. The estate was used by former AIADMK supremo as a retreat and the probe was initiated during party's rule in the state.
Police had said that another security guard Kishan Bahadur was severely injured and Om was killed during the burglary. The probe found out eleven men including Sayan (former driver from Kodanad) as accused in the case. Forensic experts said that evidence was tampered with even before they arrived at the spot, as per reports.
Reports said, the prime suspect in the heist and murder case, Kanagaraj was killed in a car accident in April 2017 in Attur on Salem-Ulundurpet highway. Kanagaraj was attempting to cross the road on a two-wheeler on April 28, 2017. Meanwhile, another suspect Sayan also met with the road accident in Kerala's Palakkad at the same time and his wife and daughter were killed. Hence, speculations were rife that Kanagaraj's death was a murder and his kin filed a complaint.
However, pointing out that Kanagaraj was inebriated, the investigators closed the case relying on postmortem report. The road accident case was reopened five days ago by Salem Rural police. Kanagaraj's death was reported after five days of April 2017 heist at the estate.
