CPM activists protest against Dileep, accuse him of usurping land

Kochi: Beleaguered actor Dileep on Monday faced fresh charges of encroaching puramboke land with CPM activists protesting at his two-acre land in Karumalloor village in North Pravur accusing him of illegally possessing 30 cents of land adjacent to it. Karumalloor grama panchayat President G.D. Shiju shot off a petition to the chief minister and revenue minister besides the Vigilance Director demanding a probe into the matter after local CPM activists staged a protest by putting up a flag on the plot.

In his petition, Shiju accused the actor of encroaching 30 cents of land worth nearly Rs 8 lakh lying adjacent to a two-acre plot alongside Periyar in Kunnukara panchayat under Karumalloor village limits and registering it in his name and that of his then wife Manju Warrier in 2005. He further alleged this was done with the active connivance of officials of the PWD and the major irrigation department with the backing of the political leadership.

“The puramboke land encroached by Dileep should be treated as excess land and attached to LIFE Mission, the State government’s housing project for the poor. Officials and the political leadership who spent lakhs of government money for the actor should be brought to book,” he demanded in the petition. However, Kunnukara panchayat president Francis Tharayil denied the charges and said that to the best of his knowledge there was no puramboke land in the area.

“The land belonged to a retired official who still has the title deed for another 2.50 acre in the area, which remains submerged in the River. He retains the title deed in the hope of getting it back if the river recedes at any time in the future,” he said. Karumalloor village authorities sent a report later in the day to Paravur tahsildar seeking a resurvey of the controversial plot by a taluk surveyor. But Paravur tahsildar K.M. Abdul Nasser said he was yet to get any report on plot.