Kollam: The Thevar family, that has been supervising the Kerala palace in Courtallam since the era of the Travancore king, denied allegations that the land owned by the Government of Kerala was misused. The palace supervisor Prabhu Damodaran was earlier suspended following a report by the PWD superintending engineer Kollam that he had grabbed land by forging documents. The case is currently with the Kerala Administrative Tribunal. According to the report, the document pertaining to the ownership of the land with the Courtallam grama panchayat has been forged by the accused.
The officials from Kerala who conducted the inspection also alleged that they were threatened by goons there. It was also found that there were irregularities in leasing the land and renting out the palace. This money was not handed over to the Kerala Government properly, according to the report. The trees that were in the palace compound were also cut down sans permission. The Courtallam palace and 55.5 acres of land located in Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu is under the ownership of the Government of Kerala and under the administrative control of the Public Works Department.
According to Ganesh Damodaran, a member of the Thevar family, the palace compound is in the name of the Government of Kerala under title deed number 637 and has not been encroached. “There are 11 buildings inside the 55.5 acres of land of which the executive officer has issued a certificate that all the taxes are being paid in the name of the Government of Kerala and are not in any individual’s name. The allegation that our family has looted wealth is baseless,” he said.
