Kodanadu Estate case: Madras HC quashes detention of Sayan under Goondas Act

The bench was allowing a habeas corpus petition from 37-year-old Sayan, challenging the orders dated March 21 this year of the Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Prohibition and Excise department.
Kodanad Estate in Tamil Nadu
Kodanad Estate in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madras High Court has set aside an order of the Tamil Nadu government detaining V Sayan, an accused in the Kodanadu estate murder and dacoity case, under the Goondas Act. 

"We find that the impugned detention order suffers from non-application of mind among other reasons. Thus, we have no hesitation in setting aside the same," the bench of Justices M M Sundresh and RMT Teekaa Raman has said. 

The bench was allowing a habeas corpus petition from 37-year-old Sayan, challenging the orders dated March 21 this year of the Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Prohibition and Excise department, on Wednesday.

The bench noted that many pages in the relevant documents in the booklet relating to the detention were illegible. Based on the very same ground, a number of detention orders had been quashed by this Court. 

Though it is contended that the contents of the documents have been read over, it appears that even the documents in Malayalam have also been read over. 

The illegible copies also include documents in Malayalam. When they were furnished to the petitioner, they should be legible enough to read. That is the very object of furnishing the copies of the documents relied upon. In almost all the other cases, translated versions of the documents are given. Now, a different procedure is adopted in the petitioner's case. Therefore, on these grounds, the impugned detention order is liable to be set aside, the judges said.

In April 2017, the security guard of the Kodanad estate, the late chief minister Jayalalithaa's retreat home in Nilgiris, was found dead. During the probe, it had emerged that Jayalalithaa's former driver C Kanagaraj and Sayan had allegedly plotted the crime. A total of 10 people had been arrested in the case, with a charge sheet also being filed later. 

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