Kodanad estate murder case: Four accused produced before magistrate

Thrissur (Kerala) [India], April 30 (ANI): Another four accused of the Kodanad estate murder case, who were arrested in Kerala's Thrissur district, were produced before the Coonoor Judicial Magistrate. The accused - Santosh, Deepu, Sathisan and Udayakumar - were then taken to the government hospital for a medical check-up. Earlier, the prime suspect of the case, the former driver of late chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, C. Kanagaraj, was killed on Friday in a road accident in Attur near Salem district in Tamil Nadu. Another suspect in the case and a close friend of Kankaraj, Sayan was critically injured while his wife and child died in another road accident in Thrissur. The police report stated that that second road accident might have been a suicide act. Kanagaraj met with an accident when he was on his way to a relative's house in Sakthi Nagar in Thalaivasal, on a two-wheeler on the Salem-Ulundurpet National Highway. Meanwhile, Sayan who has suffered serious injuries was taken to a nearby private hospital in a critical condition and later shifted to the Coimbatore Government Medical College. A case has been registered a case under Sections 279 (rash driving on a pubic way) and 304A (causing death by negligence) of IPC against the car driver in the Attur Police Station. The accused driver is being interrogated by the police.The post mortem is to be conducted in the afternoon. Talking about the accident, the Tamil Nadu Congress chief said the accident case should be properly investigated either by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or by the retired judge of High Court. So, that truth can be told to the general public. On April 24, a security guard at late Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa's Kodanad estate was allegedly killed by the duo. The Ooty Police, headed by S.P. Murali Ramba, held three persons, Santosh, Satish and Deepak in connection with the murder of guard Om Bahadur. The incident comes in the wake of the raging power struggle in the state between the two factions of the ruling party - All India Anna Munnetra Dravida Kazhagam (AIADMK) - one led by Chief Minister E. Palanisamy and the other by former chief minister O. Panneerselvam. (ANI)