In a new twist to the Kodanad heist case, three of the ten accused have knocked the doors of Madras High Court seeking direction to examine former chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and former AIADMK general secretary V.K. Sasikala.
In a criminal revision petition filed under Section 233 of CrPc, three of the accused—Deepu, Satheesan and Santhosh Samy—requested the court to also examine Jayalalithaa’s estranged foster son V.N. Sudhkaran, former Nilgiris collector Shankar IAS, former Nilgiris district Superintendent of Police Murali Rambha, state organiser of AIADMK commercial wing Sajeevan, manager of Kodanad estate Natarajan and Sajeevan's employee Sunil. In the petition, the three said that out of the 103 witnesses, only 41 were examined.
The petition alleged that the session judge permitted the examination of Natarajan alone and rejected the plea of other witnesses. “The learned judge (of the sessions court) failed to consider the sensitivity of the case wherein Sayan has come forward in digital media to depose about the involvement of former chief minister of Tamil Nadu and dismissed the petition in a mechanical manner.”
The petition also said that the prime accused in the case Kanagaraj, who was the driver of former chief minister Jayalalithaa, was killed in a road accident, but the “investigation officer conducted the investigation in a lethargic manner and left the culprits scot-free. Hence the impugned order is liable to be set aside in order to set the law in motion.”
The petition also said that the police acted in a biased manner in order to save the skin of some persons under priority and that the “sessions judge was a mute spectator to the proceedings and miserably failed to infer the seriousness of the case.”
Deepu, Satheesan and Santhosh Samy also said that the premises was in the control of Sasikala and J. Elavarasi and that they would be in a position to depose about the valuables missing after the crime took place. “The police did not record the statements of material witnesses who would be able to talk about the scene of crime.”
The petition also said that the sessions judge erred in rushing up the proceedings of the case while the investigation officer had intentionally left out to record the statements of material witnesses.
Earlier, AIADMK spokesperson and former minister D. Jayakumar had said that the DMK was purposely trying to foist a false case agains the AIADMK leaders by allowing discussion on Kodanad murder case in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. He said the matter was sub judice and the assembly cannot discuss this.
Meanwhile, Congress legislative party leader Selva Perunthagai brought a call attention motion in the assembly on the case. “The issue was raised by the AIADMK in the assembly last week. There is nothing sub judice in this,” he said.
