Thodupuzha: Kerala power minister M.M. Mani's brother M.M. Lambodaran and family have amassed assets worth crores of rupees in Idukki district, an application the planter's son submitted for a cardamom auction center license has shown.
Lambodaran, a former area secretary of the CPM at Rajakkad, has faced allegations of large-scale encroachment of government land in the Chinnakkanal area near Munnar. Several of his properties had been seized in 2007 by a special task force formed by the then chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan.
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The latest proof comes in the form of documents submitted before the Spices Board by a plantation company Lambodaran floated along with his wife and son. His wife, Sarojini, claims to have assets worth Rs 10 crore while his son Lejish, Rs 5 crore.
The Rajakkad-based Pulari Plantations Private Ltd lists Sarojini and Lejish among its five directors. Lejish had unsuccessfully applied for a license to form an auction center for cardamom.
Lambodaran, the general secretary of the Spices Planters' Association, sought to brush aside the allegations. He said baseless allegations were being raised against him and his family by vested-interest groups.
He denied any encroachment of land. "I ended my association with the party 17 years ago. Now, I do not even have a membership," he said.
He said he earned through farming and his family only possessed land and taxes were being paid for that.
"Pulari Plantations has five directors. Apart from my wife and son, there are three businessmen on the board. They were included on an understanding to ensure bank loan in case we received the license for the cardamom auction center," he said.
He added that the company had a share capital of only Rs 4.5 lakh and it could be checked by anyone with the registrar of companies. The company’s current account is held with a bank branch at Kunjithanni. It is open for anyone to check, he said.
He said he was ready to face any probe in this regard. Lambodaran had been in the news during the eviction drive in Munnar 10 years ago. Achuthanandan had made stinging remarks against Lambodaran, forcing the influential planter to send feelers to the then party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, which further irked the chief minister.
Lambodaran found himself involved in the first case taken by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau related to the Munnar land grabs as per the directions of the chief minister. The VACB seized several documents in relation to the case and later examinations at a forensic lab in Thiruvananthapuram proved that the title deed of Lambodaran's land in Munnar was fake.
The checks followed complaints that Lambodaran forged documents to buy government land in a relative's name and to resell it to someone else by forging more papers.
The VACB had found that the signature and thumb impression on the title deed were tampered with. The report, however, got a quiet burial until the later United Democratic Front launched a probe into the encroachments in Munnar.
The case is still pending before the court.