Owner of resort questioned in Kodanad murder case

Coimbatore: The special police team investigating the Kodanad heist-cum-murder case questioned Naveen Balaji, owner of Ocean Spray resort in Puducherry, at the Police Recruit School (PRS) in the city on Monday.
According to sources, Naveen Balaji was summoned by the special team based on documents seized by the income tax department during a search conducted at the Shylee Niwas apartment at CIT Nagar in Chennai in 2017.
The sources added that Naveen Balaji had given statements to the income tax officials in 2019 about a deal he had finalized to sell his resort to former chief minister Jayalalithaa’s close aide V K Sasikala for Rs 168 crore. Sasikala’s advocate S Senthil Kumar had negotiated the deal in 2016.
Around Rs 148 crore was paid in demonetised currency notes on November 22, 2016, according to the statement given by Naveen Balaji. The amount was brought in three mini trucks. Advocate Senthil Kumar was allegedly paid a commission of Rs 12 crore.
The special team also questioned sand baron O Arumugasamy and his son Senthil Kumar on July 8. The names of the father-son duo surfaced in the notice issued by the income tax department to Sasikala.
The notice claimed that Arumugasamy allegedly sold Senthil Papers and Boards Private Limited to Sasikala for Rs 600 crore. Of which, Rs 400 crore was paid in demonetised currency notes. Arumugasamy allegedly received the cash in 400 boxes containing Rs 1 crore each that were transported from Kodanad estate, sources added.
“The documents that were allegedly stolen from Kodanad bungalow were found at the service apartment at CIT Nagar. The special team has been questioning the businessmen on how the documents were shifted from Kodanad to Chennai and who transported them,” the sources added.