US-based 93-yr-old TVM man swindled of ₹3.43cr in property fraud, KSFE official among accused

Pettah police have begun a probe based on a complaint that a 93-year-old Thiruvananthapuram native, settled in the United States, was swindled of ₹3.43 crores in a property fraud.

The complaint was filed by BN Silva, a retired Deputy Secretary, Kerala government. He had moved to the United States after his retirement to live with his children, who were settled there. While residing there, he had listed his property in Pettah, Thiruvananthapuram, for sale online.

He was approached by one Rajendra Rao, who is named as the first accused in the case. They corresponded online for over two years before Silva finally agreed to sell the land. "He worked his way up, building on Silva sir's trust over the two years before committing the fraud," Robert Jacob, Silva's power of attorney, told Onmanorama.

He added that Silva did not mention the sale to anyone, even his children, until he arrived in India on June 18, 2025, to settle the deed.

According to Pettah CI, Sreekumar, the men had agreed upon a price of ₹3.43 crore for the 14 cents of land and the two-storey house and that upon receiving the cheque, Silva made arrangements to come to India and settle the deed.

On June 18, Rao and Silva met for breakfast to discuss the deal. Robert, who had accompanied Silva, said that he noticed Rao speaking secretly to Silva. "At the time, I did not think much because Silva sir really trusted Rao. But looking back, he had taken advantage of Silva sir's poor memory, old age and hearing problems," he said.

Robert said that while Silva had hoped to settle the deed by June 19, Rao kept delaying it, stating that a slot was not available with the registrar. "He pushed it until June 27, but Silva sir objected as he was leaving that day. Then he said that he will pay the registrar extra and make arrangements to settle it by June 26," Robert added.

While the sales deed was signed and the agreement settled, Rao had requested time until he could apply for a KSFE loan pledging the property so that he could make the payment. "He even brought with him a man who claimed to be a KSFE official to convince us of his plan," Robert said.

It was later, in July, when Robert, acting under the power of attorney, deposited the cheque, that they found out that they had been scammed. According to Sreekumar, the cheque bounced due to insufficient funds. However, Robert claims that they were informed that there was an issue with the signature. "At first, the money was credited to our account and then suddenly debited. Then we got the message that there was something wrong with the signature," Robert said. "But when the vigilance investigated, they said that it was due to insufficient balance," he added.

After realising they were cheated, Robert filed a complaint with the Fort Police, where the deed was registered. However, they refused to accept the complaint without Silva being present. It was on February 20, 2026, when Silva arrived from the US, that they could file a complaint. However, Robert alleged that even then the police refused to act.

"We then approached the SP and reported the incident. He then directed us to file a complaint with the Pettah police, as the property was located there," Robert said.

According to the FIR recorded on Wednesday, the police have registered a case against Rajendra Rao, the KSFE official who is yet to be identified and the vendor Manikantan, who was present during the transaction. The case has been registered under sections dealing with cheating and criminal breach of trust.

According to Sreekumar, it is suspected that Manikantan was involved in a previous case involving a land fraud at Jawahar Nagar last year. However, he added that the links have to be investigated.

In January 2025, a 14.5-cent plot of land and a house worth ₹4.5 owned by Dora, a Jawaharnagar resident currently living abroad, were illegally taken over using fake title deeds. The case led to the arrest of Sasthamangalam Sub-Registrar KS Lakshmi for allegedly facilitating the fraudulent transfer. According to reports, an individual named Manikandan was the prime accused in the case.