Salem: Accidental death case of Jaya's driver reopened

Salem: The Salem Rural police have reopened the road accident case of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's car driver, Kanagaraj, who died five days after the April 2017 heist at the Kodanad estate in Nilgiris district, which was used by the former AIADMK supremo as a retreat.

The case was reopened after obtaining required orders from the district court and an inquiry will begin soon, police sources said on Thursday. Valuables from the Kodanad property were looted while the security guard was killed.

Kanagaraj, the prime suspect in the heist and murder case, died in a road accident on the Salem-Chennai National Highway, while attempting to cross the road on a two wheeler on April 28. The family members of Kanagaraj and his brother had lodged a complaint suspecting the accident to be a murder, as another suspect K V Sayan also met with a mishap in Palakkad in Kerala at the same time, in which his wife and daughter were killed.

However, after investigation, the case was closed on the basis of postmortem report, citing Kanagaraj was drunk at that time. As the trial in heist and murder case was going on in a court in the Nilgiris district, the Salem Rural police have reopened this case and a special team will be formed to investigate it, police said.