Sayan's medical team put under police watch

Chennai/Coimbatore: Sayan is the only surviving main conspirator in the murder and robbery at the late CM Jayalalithaa's Kodanad hill retreat bungalow. As he recovers from injuries received in a car accident soon after the break-in had taken place, police are keeping the medical team treating him at a private hospital in Coimbatore under discreet watch besides noting the people who have been visiting him.

“His life is very valuable. He is the only person who can now tell us the entire episode. Of the eight men arrested, six were not even aware that it was Jaya's bungalow when they entered the place on the night of April 23. So we don't want to take chances with Sayan's life,” police sources here said while a team of police led by Nilgiris SP questioned him in the hospital on Sunday.

The prime accused Kanagaraj, who is a former driver of Jayalalithaa, was killed in a road accident on the night April 28 near his native place in Salem. He was fatally knocked down by a car belonging to woman software professional travelling from Bengaluru to Perambalur.

The driver of the car has been arrested. But within hours, Kanagaraj's friend and the second suspect, Sayan, a native of Thrisoor in Kerala who was managing a bakery in Coimbatore, met with an accident in Palakkad when his car smashed against a stationary car on the morning of April 29.

He was injured but his wife and daughter died in the accident. Since then Sayan has been undergoing treatment at GKNM hospital at Pappanaickenpalayam in Coimbatore.

With the two main suspects being involved in road accidents in a matter of a few hours had triggered speculation that powerful people were behind the robbery at Kodanad house.

Police have been separately questioning the arrested suspects so far. All of them were individually taken to the Kodanad bungalow of the former CM and asked to enact their role.  

“When taken to the scene, the suspect not only tell us what he was doing but at the same time what the others were doing too. So far we found it matching with each other's versions. And all their versions confirmed one thing, which is that they were looking for cartons of money inside the mansion”, a police source revealed.  

“When they found that there were cartons filled with money, a quarrel broke out among them. They had left the big vault in the bungalow untouched because they were short of time,” a police officer told this newspaper.  Police claim that as the gang could not get any cash they took some wristwatches and a crystal artefact from the bungalow and escaped from the scene.

Nilgiris SP rules out political links

The Nilgiris SP, Mr. Murali Rambha grilled KV Sayan, a close associate of prime accused in the Kodanad break-in-cum-security-guard-murder-case, who is undergoing treatment in the ICU of a private hospital in Coimbatore on Sunday.

The SP questioned Sayan for close to three hours in connection with the Kodanad break-in case. He later told journalists that the 11-member gang's main intention was only to loot money. "Their main focus was only to loot money and they do not have any political links," the SP said.

Further Murali Rambha said that Sayan would be arrested after discussing with the Kerala police. "It was the Kerala police, which admitted him in the hospital here following the mishap. So we can arrest him only after holding discussions with the Kerala police. But now our utmost priority is to provide treatment for his recovery," he said.

Though Sayan has been stable, he is yet to recover completely and is undergoing treatment in the ICU of the hospital. Sayan was bound for Thrissur, when his car crashed into a stationed lorry on the Palakkad-Thrissur road, which left his wife Vinupriya and five-year-old daughter Neethu dead.