COIMBATORE : Though the Kodanad heist and murder at J Jayalalithaa’s estate was a major campaign flashpoint in the 2021 poll when the AIADMK was unseated, the investigation in the case remains stalled, with little progress to show after years of political squabble.
In the 2026 Tamil Nadu election cycle, however, political parties seem to have largely toned down their rhetoric on the issue that once dominated political discourse.
The case with alleged links to high-profile politicians is stymied due to suspected lack of political will and fund crunch, which has prevented scientific scouring of digital evidence said to be expensive but essential to achieve a breakthrough.
Then DMK leader and current Chief Minister MK Stalin, in 2021, had promised a thorough investigation once the party is voted to power, accusing AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami for links to the crime that occurred on the property of former CM J Jayalalithaa’s estate in the Nilgiris after her demise.
Following the verdict in the Pollachi sexual assault case in May 2025, Stalin even declared that his government would prioritise securing justice in the Kodanad case. However, the probe continued to drag on, without much progress.
Both the Pollachi and Kodanad cases, which took place under the previous AIADMK regime, had significantly damaged the party’s vote bank in the western region, traditionally its stronghold, in the elections held since 2019.
Completing the Kodanad probe successfully could have become another political achievement for the DMK ahead of the Assembly polls. Sources privy to the probe said inadequate support from the state government was a major reason. They claim the government is yet to release around `3 crore required to retrieve critical digital data that could establish crucial links in the case.
The case was initially investigated by the Nilgiris police, then transferred to a Special Investigation Team led by the West Zone IG after the DMK government assumed power in 2021. The CB-CID took over in 2022, and its team has arrested a few more suspects. However, the investigation has hit a roadblock in retrieving and analysing digital evidence.
Legal and investigation sources said the state government needs to provide financial support for data retrieval, as there are two key technical challenges. “One is the retrieval of a seven-digit foreign phone number through which an unknown person had communicated with the prime suspects after the heist. Interpol’s help was sought via the CBI for this, but almost a year has passed with little progress,” sources said. The second involves call detail records (CDR) from magnetic tapes. From the BSNL, the CB-CID has obtained 10 magnetic tapes, containing CDRs of around 60 phone numbers, along with 19 tower dumps from the crime scene at the time correlated to the heist.
“A leading software firm that handled the maintenance of the machinery to read these tapes ended its contract in 2024, just before we approached them. Since magnetic tapes are an obsolete technology and BSNL’s current systems cannot read them directly, the tapes were sent to the National Forensic Sciences University in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, but it refused to process them.
The BSNL has now quoted Rs 2.94 crore, without GST, to retrieve the data. The CB-CID SIT sent a formal request for fund allocation to the state government through the DGP a year ago, but no decision has been taken yet. This has abruptly halted progress in the probe,” sources added.