CHENNAI: Marking a significant turn in the Kodanad murder case, a petition has been moved before the Madras High Court seeking orders to include former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, and VK Sasikala, the one-time confidante of former CM J Jayalalithaa, and others as defence witnesses in the case.
Three of the accused in the case, Deepu, MS Satheesan, and A Santhosh Samy, all from Kerala, moved the petition saying that the sessions court in Ooty had, on April 30, partially allowed their petition to examine Natarajan, manager of Kodanad estate, while dismissing the petition with respect to others.
They sought to examine Palaniswami and Sasikala, along with the latter’s sister-in-law J Ilavarasi, Jayalalithaa’s disowned foster son VN Sudhakaran, former Nilgiris Collector Shankar, former Superintendent of Police Murali Ramba, AIADMK traders wing’s State organiser Sajeevan, estate manager Natarajan, and Sunil of Gudalur, in the case.
“We want all the nine to be included as defence witnesses and prayed for setting aside the order of the sessions court,” advocate K Vijayan, representing the petitioners, said on Monday. The petition said, “...the investigation team failed to conduct a transparent inquiry and failed to cull out the prime culprits in the case, who were conveniently left behind the screen.”