AIADMK Leaders Urge Governor's Intervention in Kodanad Murder-heist Case, Say Further Probe is 'Political Vendetta'

The former chief minister and AIADMK leader Edappadi K Palaniswami, accompanied by party coordinator O Panneerselvam, met Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit in Chennai urging his intervention Kodanad murder-heist case. This comes after the incumbent DMK government reactivated the probe into the matter.

Palaniswami, along with other AIADMK leaders disrupted state assembly proceedings on Wednesday as a protest against what they term as ‘political vendetta.’

Speaking to reporters after the protest, Palaniswami said the DMK Government was “out to trap him” in the case. Responding to allegations, chief minister Stalin said in the assembly that only due process will be followed in the probe and that there would be no political interventions.

Palaniswami’s discomfiture with the case deepened after the Nilgiris police renewed investigations with KV Sayan, one of the key accused in the case. Sayan, who was earlier given bail, had in an interview with a Delhi-based journalist spoken about the involvement of Palaniswami in the matter.

The Kodanad murder-heist case relates to the killing of a security guard and theft of various valuables from the sprawling mansion in Kodanad in the Nilgiris that J Jayalalithaa had used as a retreat. Occurring in April 2017, it had occurred just two months after Sasikala had begun her term in prison to serve her 4-year sentence in the disproportionate assets case.

The AIADMK top brass has been facing the heat from the new government’s anti-corruption wing of the DMK government, too. Recently, the party’s Coimbatore strongman SP Velumani was raided by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption authorities in connection with certain contracts he awarded to his family while he was a minister in the previous government.

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