In what has become a major setback for Edappadi Palaniswami, the Supreme Court has on Tuesday given a green signal that the Tamil Nadu police can go ahead with their investigations into the Kodanad heist and murder case in which Palaniswami, who was the Chief Minister when the incident happened, has been alleged to have played a role in the crime that killed a security guard and looted several documents and valuables from the Kodanad estate, that was owned by late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. 

The apex court was hearing the petition of appeal moved by ADMK leader Anubhav Ravi, who is one of the witnesses in the case. In his petition, Ravi had challenged the order of the Madras High Court to allow further probe into the case and he appealed to the top court to stop the probe into the case by claiming that the re-investigation would run without an end. He moved his petition to the Supreme Court after his request to stop the probe was dismissed by the Madras High Court. 

Through this petition, Ravi and Edappadi Palaniswami had aimed that the top court would halt the investigation carried out by the state ruling DMK regime. However, after hearing the petition, the Supreme Court bench chaired by Justice Chandrachud has on Tuesday dismissed Ravi's petition to stop the probe and observed that the court doesn't want to interfere in the Kodanad case. As the petition to barricade the probe was dismissed by India's highest judicial body, trouble has been mounting for Palaniswami and ADMK leaders that the DMK's drive of fastening the investigation puts more ordeal on them. 

With the dismissal, the apex court has signalled that the police can carry out their investigation into the matter and the dismissal has come at a high time when the Tamil Nadu police are inching closer to investigate expelled ADMK General Secretary VK Sasikala in the matter. In April 2017, months after the demise of Jayalalithaa, the state was shocked to witness a robbery and murder in her palatial estate, that sits on Kodanad in the Nilgiris district. The robbers had killed a security guard of the estate before entering it and looted various documents and valuables that were stored in Jayalalithaa's room. 

Days after the incident, Kanagaraj, who was Jayalalithaa's car driver and the prime suspect of the case, was killed in a road accident. Following the death of Kanagaraj, another suspect KV Sayan had met with an accident in Kerala in which his wife and daughter was killed. However, Sayan had escaped with injuries and on July 3, 2017, Kodanad estate computer operator Dhinesh Kumar had committed suicide. The mysterious deaths of people close to the estate had immensely dreaded the state. Sayan was imprisoned and the case and these deaths had remained cryptic during ADMK's regime with a question of who would breach the security of Jayalalithaa's estate and would commit murder. 

Two years later, Sayan, in an interview to a documentary, had shockingly said that the heist and murder were happened as per the instructions of Edappadi Palaniswami, who was the Chief Minister. After the DMK came to power in the state, the probe has got fastened and recently, the top police officers in the Nilgiris had interrogated Sayan for three hours in connection to the case and after knowing the sudden questioning, Edappadi Palaniswami had held protests against the DMK regime by claiming that the government was trying to trap him in the case. As the case resurrected again, ADMK leader Ravi had approached the Madras High Court to stop the investigation and after dismissal, he had gone to the Supreme Court and again, he braced up a setback after back-to-back rejections. 

On the other hand, Tamil Nadu police had formed special teams to re-investigate the deaths of prime suspect Kanagaraj, the wife and children of Sayan, and the suicide of computer operator Dinesh Kumar. According to reports, five police teams have been installed to probe the Kodanad case and three of five teams will investigate these mysterious deaths that were connected to the case. The reports say that the remaining two teams would concentrate on reinvestigating the prosecution witnesses and other suspected persons in connection with the heist and murder case.

On Monday, the police had questioned Shaji of Thrissur in Kerala for five hours at the old SP office in Ooty and the police had also inquired Dhanabal, brother of prime suspect Kanagaraj, and Natarajan, the manager of Kodanad caste. It is expected that a police team would rush to Nepal as the deceased security guard had relatives in Nepal and some of the guards also belonged to India's neighbouring country. As the case has been getting expedited at all verticals, the developments have been surfacing furores in the state and levying more setbacks to Edappadi Palaniswami. The case is inching towards the climax by taking stunning twists and turns.