Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami on Saturday denied any links with the robbery attempt at former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalithaa’s Kodanadu estate in April 2017.

Unidentified men had killed a security guard during the robbery attempt four months after Jayalalithaa’s death. Two months later, an accountant working at the estate was found dead at his house in Kotagiri.

Narada News Chief Executive Officer Mathew Samuel had on Thursday released a documentary in which an accused KV Sayan, claimed that his co-accused, Jayalalithaa’s former driver Kanakaraj, was in touch with Palaniswami. Sayan also claimed that Kanakaraj had asked him to hire people from outside Tamil Nadu to steal documents from the estate and hand them over to Palaniswami.

But on Saturday, Palaniswami claimed he did not receive any documents from the estate, Puthiyathalaimurai TV reported. The chief minister warned that stringent action will be taken against the news channel.

“We have filed a case in Chennai,” he told reporters at a press conference in Chennai, flanked by Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam. “The police will investigate who is behind this documentary and their intentions.”

Palaniswami said that the accused in the robbery case have appeared in court 22 times, but have never made the claims ascribed to them in the documentary.

Opposition reactions

Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam founder TTV Dhinakaran demanded a High Court judge-monitored investigation into the case, while the Communist Party of India (Marxist) sought a CBI probe.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam have demanded that the chief minister resign.