DileepKumarakom: Actor Dileep’s arrest last week on charges of plotting the assault on an actress in February has put his real estate deals in the spotlight.
After the row about the ownership of land where the actor built a huge multiplex in Chalakudy, a plot in Kumarakom has been brought under the lens of the revenue department officials.
Revenue minister E. Chandrasekharan has asked the Kottayam district collector to probe the allegations that Dileep had encroached government land in the 12th block of the Kumarakom village.
Environmental activists at Kumarakom alleged that Dileep had encroached government land and sold it to someone else even as the Kerala High Court was looking into the matter.
The revenue officials later surveyed the 2.5 acre land with police protection and found out that government land has been encroached.
The police said that Dileep bought the property in 2007 for Rs 70,000 per cent. The actor later secured an interim order from the high court to stay an eviction and covertly sold off the property, including the encroached stretch, for Rs 4.8 lakh per cent.
When the case came up for hearing again in May, Dileep’s counsel told the court that the petitioner was not interested in the case any more as he had sold it.
The court went through the records nevertheless and ordered a special tehsildar to get back the land .
The sudden media glare following Dileep’s arrest has forced the revenue department to sit up and take note.
The department has also decided to vet all the transactions related to the entire property Dileep owns at Chalakkudy. The actor’s D-Cinemaas multiplex is built on an acre of land.
A high-level probe is likely because a deal of this magnitude could not have happened without getting involved the officials concerned.
The deal was flagged by one Santosh on June 11, 2015 but the progress of investigation has been shoddy so far.
The district collector said the tangle was very complex and his team was on it.
A report from the collector showed that the administration has called the representatives of the Kochi Dewaswom, which originally owned the plot.
According to a survey report, the land belongs to the Valiya Koyithamburan’s royal family and the Kannambuzha Bhagawati dewaswom. At least 35 cents in the plot is government land without title deeds. Dileep bought 17.5 cents from multiple owners but it was not clear how the land came into their hands and how they were allowed to pay taxes on it. All the documents are missing.
The deputy collector had recommended for a high-level probe into the matter.
Read more: Latest news from Kerala | Fan mails flood Aluva sub jail, but Dileep is yet to open even one
