Mystery deepens

The developments in the controversial Kodanad estate case have opposition leader Palaniswami rattled

- LAKSHMI SUBRAMANIAN

ON AUGUST 18, as the legislative assembly was preparing to debate the revised budget estimates for the current fiscal year, opposition leader Edappadi K. Palaniswami brandished a poster condemning the DMK government. When Speaker M. Appavu denied him time to speak, AIADMK legislators led by Palaniswami raised slogans and walked out of the assembly. “The government is trying to foist false charges upon me and my partymen in the Kodanad murder case, even though the investigation in the case is over,” he told journalists outside the assembly.

Palaniswami was referring to the break-in at former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s 800-acre tea estate in Kodanad in April 2017, which had resulted in the death of a security guard. It had happened when Palaniswami was chief minister, and he had told the assembly the day after the incident that it was a case of robbery gone wrong. “The men, while fleeing the place, were caught by the security guard. They killed him,” he had said.

The charge-sheet against the 10 accused in the case was filed in September 2017. Palaniswami now alleges that the DMK government is trying to implicate him and party colleagues by reopening the investigation into the case.

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, however, said bringing out the truth in the case was one of the poll promises of the DMK. “There is no political motive or vendetta,” he said. “There is no need for anyone to express fear over this. The government will adhere to the law in the Kodanad case and bring the culprits to book.”