CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday directed the Sholurmattam police in Nilgiris district to file its reply to a plea by the three accused in the 2017 Kodanad Estate heist-cum-murder case, seeking summon examination of former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and former general secretary of AIADMK VK Sasikala and others before the trial court.
The accused in the case D Deepu, MS Satheesan and A Santhosh Samy have filed the revision petition against the refusal of the trial court to summon the former CM and others. They contended that the trial court judge had passed the order in a hurried manner without considering their pleas.
The petitioners said they had moved the sessions court seeking to permit them to examine Palaniswami, Sasikala, J Eelavarasi, V Sudhakaran, former Nilgiris district collector Shankar, superintendent of police Murali Rambah, AIADMK state organizer Sajeevan, manager of Kodanad estate Natarajan, and Sunil, a resident of Gudalur.
On April 30, the sessions court passed an order partly allowing the petition and permitted examination only manager Natarajan, they said. Challenging the trial court order, they moved the high court. Hearing the petition, Justice M Nirmal Kumar directed police to file its reply by September 27.