The Vigilance Department, which has initiated a detailed probe into the land in the illegal possession of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd and the forgery of documents related to them, has decided to constitute a high-level team, including top officials of the Land Commissionerate, State Land Bank, Registration and Survey Departments.
The special team under DySP V Shyamkumar will have assistant commissioner (LA) and special officer D Sajith Babu, Land Board assistant secretary Shibu, first grade and second grade surveyors and officials of the Registration Department.
Official sources said that a proposal to constitute the high-level team, including the above mentioned officials and those from the Revenue Department, had been submitted to the Vigilance Director. It is learnt that the team would be constituted at the earliest. Vigilance Director Mahesh Kumar Singla told ‘Express’ that around 16 persons would be in the team. He said that the investigation had already begun.
The special team was constituted for a detailed probe into the whole issue highlighted in the preliminary report submitted by investigating officer DySP Nandanam Pillai, who looked into the forgery of document 1600/1923, pertaining to around 26,000 acres of land registered at the Kollam Principal Registration office. The Vigilance has already registered a case against HML executive officials C Vinayaraghavan, Dharmaraj, Ravi Anand and V Venugopal and four registrars for the alleged forgery of the documents.
Apart from looking into the forgery of the documents, the investigation will cover the alleged financial dealings of the company, which include diversion of funds, tax evasion, availing of loans from various banks and tea subsidies. The team will probe the alleged corruption of officials of the Revenue and Registration Departments.
‘documents, maps fabricated’
In the preliminary report, it was found that the documents and survey maps with the company were all fabricated and had been made outside the country. The investigating officer had also found marked differences in the lithographic maps submitted by the company and the government.