Kodanad case: CB-CID questions Jayalalithaa’s personal assistant Poongundran

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Crime Branch CID (CB-CID) police on Tuesday questioned S. Poongundran, who was the personal assistant to former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, as part of its ongoing investigation into the dacoity-cum-murder at the Kodanad estate bungalow in the Nilgiris in 2017.

Mr. Poongundran, who had been the personal assistant to Jayalalithaa for over 15 years, was summoned to the CB-CID office at Gandhipuram. He appeared before the SIT around 11 a.m. and the questioning continued till 5 p.m.

“I have answered their questions,” Mr. Poongundran told journalists when he exited the CB-CID office. He declined to disclose the nature of details asked by the SIT officials.

Sources privy to the investigation said the SIT asked around 150 questions to Mr. Poongundran. He was asked to give the details of the bungalow’s closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera system , where armed men gained entry after gunning down security guard Om Bahadur on the intervening night of April 23 and 24 of 2017.

He was also whether documents containing sensitive information had been stored there. He was also quizzed whether any of the accused in the case got in touch with him or attempted to contact him before and after the incident.