Thrissur: As directed by the Land Revenue Commissioner, the Thrissur district collector conducted a sitting to collect evidence from parties concerned in connection with the allegations of land encroachment by D-Cinemaas, the theater complex owned by actor Dileep.
The collector initiated the procedure following a complaint submitted to land revenue commissioner by K.C. Santhosh. The complainant alleged that D-Cinemaas encroached upon public land including 'Thode Puramboke' and argued that a part of the land belonged to Cochin Devaswom Board.
Dileep's brother Anoop appeared before the collector for presenting the arguments on behalf of D-Cinemas at the proceedings held at Thrissur collectorate. District survey superintendent R. Babu, revenue tehsildar of Chalakudy V.C. Laila, deputy tehsildar of Cochin Devaswom Board S. Bindu, law officer Shymol and C. Vasu attended the sitting. The collector directed them to appear for the next sitting on August 24.
Federal Bank joins the case
Federal Bank also joined as a party in the land-grab case involving actor Dileep. The representatives of the bank attended the district collector's sitting. The bank had granted loan to D-Cinemaas, hence it sent representatives to present its case. The collector also directed the bank officials to come with more documents for the next sitting.
D-Cinemaas started functioning at Chalakudy in December 2014. The controversy about its land re-surfaced after actor Dileep got entangled in the actress attack case. He was arrested last month for allegedly masterminding the attack against a leading actress in Malayalam cinema.
When the land encroachment allegations hogged the headlines, the revenue department ordered an inquiry into it. But the state survey department later found that no public land was encroached upon to build the theater. In the midst of these developments, the Chalakudy municipal council on August 4 closed down the theater, by pointing out a number of violations. But the Kerala High Court found that the action taken by the municipality would not stand. Actor Dileep, in his fresh bail plea, cited that the land encroachment allegations against him were part of concerted efforts to malign him. The revenue department had found the allegations baseless, he stated.
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