Thiruvananthapuram: The government has cancelled the controversial ‘Thandaper’ in which the Kadakampally land grab took place. This ‘Thandaper’ was allegedly created to help Salim Raj, the former gunman to former chief minister Oommen Chandy and his family members to grab 45.50 acres of land that belonged to 170 people in Kadakampally, with the help of officials and by using forged documents. The fake Thandaper ‘3587’ used for grabbing the land was cancelled by Thiruvananthapuram collector S. Venkateshapathy on Friday. This was based on the findings by the CBI and the revenue department that in order to grab 44 acres of land in Kadakampally village, a fake Thandaper ‘3587’ was used.
Though the CBI had wanted the ‘Thandaper’ to be annulled during the time of the previous government itself, it was not done. Following this, as many as 100 families could not pay their taxes. The present decision of abolishing the fake name, would enable these families to pay their taxes. The CBI had found that a fraud of '14 crore had taken place in the Kadakampally land deal. The investigation also found that '60 crore was spent to change the ‘Thandaper’ of the land alone. On the basis of the findings, 10 persons including Salim Raj were arrested and were released on bail during the time of the previous government.
The District Collector had ordered resurvey of the property after landowners launched a protest when they were denied permission to remit land tax, since there were other claimants to the same property. The survey team was asked to find whether there was more than one title deed holder for the same plots in the 44.5 acres. The re-survey found duplication only in the ownership of three plots. However, the team had concluded that there was no dispute in the case of other plots in the area. The case was first probed by the Vigilance. However, some petitioners had later approached the High Court for a CBI probe. The CBI probe was following a High Court decision.
