Udhagamandalam: Nearly a year and half after walking out of jail -- on bail -- in the sensational Kodanad estate murder-dacoity case, two key suspects are set to return to prison, as a district court cancelled their bails on Friday.The district sessions court in Ooty cancelled the bails of KV Sayan and ‘Walayar’ Manoj, after the prosecution argued that the witnesses were being threatened by the duo. The Nilgiris police filed cancellation petitions before the court invoking sections 437(5) and 439 of the CrPC, which empower the court concerned to revoke bail and commit the accused to custody again.When contacted, Nilgiris district superintendent of police D Shanmuga Priya told TOI: “The sessions court has cancelled the bail order for the accused. Soon arrest warrants will be executed against them.” While prosecution sought cancellation of bail of all the four -- Sayan, Manoj, Deepu and Joy – the court obliged in the case of only two.Days after a Delhi-based journalist came out with a video showing Sayan and Manoj, and claiming chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s role in the dacoity-murder at Kodanad estate in 2017, police moved the Nilgiris court to cancel their bail, on the ground that they were trying to influence the witnesses and derail trial. Violation of conditions and attempt to interfere with investigation/trial are valid grounds for cancellation of bail of suspects.In September 2017, the police filed a 300-page chargesheet before the jurisdictional judicial magistrate court in Kotagiri. The chargesheet included forensic reports, inquiry details of 97 witnesses and 69 documents detailing vehicles and weapons used by the accused.Last month, a magistrate court in Chennai had declined to remand Sayan and Manoj in judicial custody, when police registered a fresh case for linking chief minister Palaniswami to the Kodanad estate incidents. The chief minister, then, filed a civil suit in the Madras high court seeking Rs 1.1 crore compensation from the journalist and others who had featured in the recorded video. The court has since restrained them from giving interviews against Palaniswami on the subject, until further orders.

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