Kochi: Muvattupuzha Vigilance Court on Saturday ordered quick verification against former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, former Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash, in the controversial land deal involving Hope Plantation. Special Judge and enquiry commissioner P. Madhavan directed the Special Investigation Unit of the Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau (VACB), Thiruvananthapuram, to probe the complaint and file a report by September 30.
The court asked VACB director to coordinate the investigation and file a report by September 30. Litigant Girish Babu filed the complaint against the UDF government's decision to grant exemption to 702 acres of government land to Hope Plantation, Bethel Plantation, and Life Time Plantation. The petitioner argued that the deal caused a loss of around Rs 356 crore to the state exchequer.
Though the government had later backtracked on the decision, the petitioner argued that the action amounted to criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The vigilance court asked VACB to verify whether the observation in the Government Order that the Hope Plantation has employed 3,000 labourers directly and indirectly and sustained the livelihood of 10,000 people was based on any independent study and whether any condition imposed on the continuance of the tea estate.
The VACB will be also verifying the criteria adopted for taking back the 151 acres land and the material available to prove a criminal misconduct on the part of Mr. Chandy and Mr. Prakash. The court also noted that the hurried decision to surrender the land to the plantation companies just ahead of the state election by changing the earlier stance created doubts regarding the deal. According to the petitioner, the Peerumedu Taluk Land Board had taken over the 1,300-acre plantation as government-owned excess land, which was assigned to The South India Tea Estate before Independence.
