A special team of the police, investigating the alleged dacoity and murder of a security guard at former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s Kodanad estate bungalow in the Nilgiris in 2017, questioned Naveen Balaji, owner of Ocean Spray Resort at Puducherry, in Coimbatore on Monday.
A senior police officer said Mr. Balaji was summoned based on certain documents seized by the Income Tax (I-T) Department during a search conducted in an apartment at CIT Nagar in Chennai in 2017. The team questioned Mr. Balaji, who belongs to the Puducherry-based Sri Lakshmi Jewellery group, on the Police Recruits School campus.
His name had first figured in a notice issued by the I-T Department to Jayalalithaa’s close aide V.K. Sasikala in October 2019. The notice referred to a statement allegedly given by Mr. Balaji to the I-T Department, which said a deal was finalised to sell the resort to Ms. Sasikala for a total consideration of ₹168 crore, and her advocate S. Senthil negotiated the deal in 2016. It had claimed that ₹148 crore was paid in demonetised notes on November 22, 2016, and the cash was brought in three mini-trucks.
The name of sand baron O. Arumugasamy, who was questioned by the special team in Coimbatore on July 8 along with his son Senthil Kumar, had also figured in the notice. As per the notice, he reportedly sold Senthil Papers and Boards Private Limited for a total consideration of ₹600 crore, out of which ₹400 crore was paid in demonetised currency.
It had alleged that Mr. Aumugasamy had received the cash in 400 boxes, each containing ₹1 crore, which were transported from the Kodanad estate by its manager Natarajan.
