Oommen Chandy's former aide held in land grab case

Trivandrum: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s former gunman Salim Raj and 10 others in connection with the multi-billion Kalamaserry and Kadakampally land scams.

While seven persons including two revenue officials and four relatives of Salim Raj were arrested in connection with the attempt to grab 44.5 acres of land worth Rs2 billion at Kadakampally village in Trivandrum district and three revenue officials were taken into custody at Cochin in the case related to misappropriation of 116 cents of land costing Rs250 million at Kalamaserry.

Salim Raj is the 21st accused in the Kadakampally land grab case. Though his wife Shamsad is 23rd accused in the case she has not been arrested so far. However Salim Raj’s brother in-law Muhammad Ashraf who is an accused in both the cases figures among the arrested.

Revenue officials figuring in the list of arrested persons are Trivandrum-based additional tehsildar Vidyodaya Kumar and revenue officer Jayaram and Thrikkakara village officer Sabu village assistant Morad and collectorate clerk Geevarghese who are based in Cochin.

The first information report (FIR) filed by the CBI in the Kadakampally case alleged that the accused persons had conspired to grab the land held by 132 persons by fabricating and manipulating revenue records. The CBI has slapped conspiracy charges against Salim Raj.

In the Kalamaserry case the CBI FIR stated that the accused persons had tried to grab the ancestral land of one Nassar with the help of false forged and fabricated documents.

The other accused in the case include Muhammad Ali Abdul Majeed and Salam who are said to be relatives of Salim Raj.

The CBI had taken over the investigation on the orders of Kerala High Court. CBI sources said that more persons were involved in both the cases and they will be arrested soon. The complainants say the arrested persons were only small fries and there were many big sharks involved in the scam.

Kishore a complainant in the Kadakampally case said that Salim Raj who joined the police force as an ordinary constable and his relatives had no capacity to acquire such a large extent of land. He believes that many big shots were behind the scam and added that they will continue their legal battle to bring them before the law.

Former Kerala government chief whip P C George alleged that chief minister himself was the number one accused in both the cases. He said that Salim Raj had confided with him about Chandy’s role in the deal.

Salim Raj was removed from the chief minister’s security after his name figured in the solar scam in 2013. Deputy opposition leader Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has also put Chandy in the dock in the cases. He said that the scams were ‘sponsored’ by the government.

The arrest of Chandy’s former aide may make the land scams a major campaign point in the Aruvikkara by-election to be held on June 27. The chief minister has termed the poll as a referendum on his government’s performance.

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