Two Kerala natives being questioned in Kodanadu murder case

A Tamil Nadu police team, which has gone to Kerala, along with the local police is interrogating the duo near Nilambur for their suspected involvement in the case, officials said.

Om Bahadur, a security guard posted at the bungalow at Kodanad Estate in Nilgiris district, was found dead and one of his colleagues seriously injured on April 24 following an apparent break in there.

Some documents were also suspected to have been stolen from the bungalow.

Police have so far identified six out of the 11 people who are allegedly involved in the killing of the guard.

A former driver of Jayalalithaa and one of the main suspects in the case, Kanakaraj, was killed after his two- wheeler hit a car at Athur in Salem district yesterday.

Another suspect and close friend of Kanakaraj, Sayan suffered serious injuries, while his wife and child died in a road accident involving their two-wheeler and a car in Kerala’s Thrissur district the same day, they said.

The condition of Sayan, undergoing treatment at a private hospital here, is stable, doctors attending to him said.

Meanwhile, a group of police personnel from Palakkad visited the hospital and questioned Sayan for nearly one hour, they said.

Kanakaraj, who hailed from Salem, conspired the dacoity with 10 others, including Sayan from Coimbatore, with the prime motive of loot, police had said yesterday.

The four arrested men — Sathisan, Santhosh Sami, Udhayakumar and Deepu — were brought to Kothagiri police station in Nilgiris district this afternoon and taken to the government hospital for a medical examination, police said.

Later they were taken to the residence of Coonoor Judicial Magistrate Sundararajan, who remanded them in judicial custody for 15 days.

They will be lodged at the Coimbatore central jail, police said.

The Kodanadu estate figures in the disproportionate assets case involving jailed AIADMK general secretary V K Sasikala and Jayalalithaa, among others.

Alleging that there were several “mysteries and knots” in the case, Opposition DMK today demanded a Home Secretary- monitored probe by an ADGP-level official into the guard’s murder, while the BJP’s state unit sought an “expanded probe”.