OOTY: Raids carried out at the house and saw mill of one Sajeevan, an influential timber trader at Gudalur in Nilgiris border along Kerala, who is allegedly well connected with the Kodanad estate management, raised eye brows as the raids hinted at the proximity between the two. Sources in the ruling party circles said that he used to be a small time carpenter-cum-timber merchant in Gudalur about a decade ago and his access to the Kodanad when the new bungalow was being built to carry out the carpentry works changed his fortune.
From then onwards the trader's rise in the business was believed to be phenomenal and also he grew in such a way to cement his relationship with the Kodanad management and to become an influential personality in the party circles. His name cropped during the investigations in regard to dacoity-cum- murder at Kodanad in April, as his role too was suspected, because, he was believed to have introduced one Sayan, the second accused in the Kodanad break-in case, to the estate as a carpentry assistant. However, lack of evidence saved his face in this investigation.
The timber trader was also said to have acquired properties in Coimbatore too. While he was out of station on Thursday, the I-T officials are said to have grilled his family members and employees about his properties elsewhere and also from where he sources costly woods for the timber trade and who are all his regular customers, and whether he acted as ‘benami for Kodanad transactions’, sources added.
