Kodanad heist and murder case: TN SIT to quiz former PSO of Jayalalithaa today
Chennai, March 12 (IANS) The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the CB-CID is set to interrogate Perumal, the former personal security officer (PSO) of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, in connection with the Kodanad heist and murder case.
Perumal, who hails from Bhavani in Erode district, has been summoned for questioning on Wednesday.
So far, the SIT has interrogated more than 200 individuals in the ongoing investigation.
On Tuesday, another former PSO of Jayalalithaa, Veeraperumal, was questioned for nearly three hours at the CB-CID office in Gandhipuram. His statements were video recorded.
Speaking to the media, he stated that he served as Jayalalithaa’s PSO in 1991 and from 2002 to 2016. “After Jayalalithaa’s demise, I was transferred to another wing of the police department,” he said.
The Kodanad estate, one of Jayalalithaa’s key properties, was the site of a violent heist on April 23, 2017.
A heavily armed gang broke into the bungalow, looted valuables, and murdered a security guard. The crime was allegedly orchestrated by C. Kanagaraj, a former driver at Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence.
Believing that crores of rupees were hidden inside the estate, he assembled a gang of 11 individuals, including ten men from Kerala.
On the night of the crime, the gang arrived in two cars and reached Gate No. 8 of the estate around 10:30 p.m. They forced their way inside, overpowered security guard Krishna Thapa, tied him up and locked him inside a lorry.
Two of the accused stood watch while the rest proceeded to Gate No. 10, where they attacked and killed the second security guard, Om Bahadur.
Shortly after the heist, multiple deaths linked to the case raised suspicions. Kanagaraj (accused number 1) was killed in a road accident on the Salem-Chennai highway near Attur.
Sayan (accused number 2) from Thrissur, Kerala, also met with an accident the same day near Palakkad. His car crashed into a parked lorry, killing his wife and daughter. However, Sayan survived with injuries.
On July 3, 2017, Dinesh Kumar, a 29-year-old computer operator at the Kodanad estate, was found dead at his residence in Kotagiri.
Police ruled it a suicide and Dinesh’s death marked the fourth mysterious fatality linked to the Kodanad case, further deepening the intrigue surrounding the crime.
With fresh interrogations underway, the SIT continues to unravel the complex web of events tied to the heist and murders at Kodanad. The questioning of former security personnel is expected to shed new light on the case.
–IANS
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