TN Police to continue questioning Sasikala on Friday

Chennai, April 22 (IANS) A special team of the Tamil Nadu Police will continue questioning the AIADMK's former interim General Secretary, V.K. Sasikala on Friday in the Kodanad murder and heist case.

The six-member team led by Western Zone Inspector General, R. Sudhakaran, and comprising of five other officers, had questioned Sasikala at her T-Nagar residence here for more than six hours on Thursday.

Sasikala, who was the close aide of late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, told reporters on Thursday evening that she would speak to the media in detail after her questioning on Friday.

The probe is in connection to the murder and heist at the 906-acre Kodanad estate located in the Nilgiris district that took place on April 24, 2017, four months after the passing away of Jayalalithaa.

Sasikala was serving a jail term at the Bengaluru central prison in a case related to a disproportionate asset case during the burglary and murder at the Kodanad estate.

The estate is jointly owned by the Jayalalithaa and Sasikala.

Eleven people were arraigned in the case with Kanagaraj, the driver of the late leader, as the main accused. Five days after the incident at the estate, Kanagarj was killed in a road accident on Salem-Chennai highway, and on the same day the second accused, Sayen, and his family met with a road accident at Palakkad in Kerala.

While Sayen escaped, his wife and daughter were killed.

A computer operator in Kodanad estate, Dinesh Kumar was found hanging from his residence a few months after the heist thus taking the total deaths following the burglary at the estate to five.

Three of the accused who were in jail, including Sayen, had demanded a reinvestigation into the case and appealed to the court that allowed the plea.

The accused wanted Sasikala and her close associates be questioned, as well as setting up of a special team to probe the case .

The team has already questioned Sasikala's nephew Vivek Jayaraman.