NEYYATTINKARA: Rajan and wife Ambili and their sons Rahul and Renjith had been staying in the one-room hut in the disputed land at Laksham Veedu Colony at Pongil near Venpakal in Neyyattinkara for the last one-and-a-half years. Ambili was mentally challenged. Rajan wanted to build a new house for the family and hence they shifted to the four-cent plot which is said to be puramboke land.
However, their neighbour, Vasantha, 70, had bought the piece of land which allegedly has a fake pattayam (title deed). Since Rajan, a carpenter, and family started building the hut, Vasantha used to threaten them with eviction claiming that the property was hers. She approached the munsiff court and the legal battle for it is going on.
On December 22, the court-appointed commission came to the disputed land with the police to evict Rajan and family. Rajan was having lunch with the family. The police shouted at them to come outside and told them to vacate the house immediately. Since Rajan had moved the High Court for a stay order, he told the police to wait for an hour for showing the order. However, the court-appointed commission and police did not heed his request.
This prompted Rajan to pour kerosene on him and Ambili and threaten to immolate themselves. Rajan lit a cigarette lighter and ASI Anilkumar tried to throw it away. This allegedly sparked the fire that engulfed the couple. Rahul, the couple’s elder son, told TNIE that he wants to live there with his brother Renjith. “This is our land. We want to live here. I know that there will be threats from our neighbour, Vasantha, since she has influence on the police. The government may announce the assistance, but we need to live here. Our demand is to allow us to live where my father and mother are resting,” he said.
Rajan’s mother Thulasi said that Vasantha used to threaten her son. “Vasantha is rich. We are poor. The rich can do anything against us,” she said. Social activist Sreeja Neyyattinkara said the land where Rajan’s family has been staying is puramboke and it is not Vasantha’s. “I know both families. Vasantha is a Mahila Congress activist. She used to lodge complaints with the police about drug abuse incidents in the colony. Hence, many residents do not like her,” she said.
Vasantha told TNIE that the land belongs to her and she bought it from one Sukumaran Nair a long time ago. “This land has pattayam. It is my property. Since I had complained against residents, including Rajan, they wanted to wreak vengeance on me and started building houses encroaching my land. The court favoured me. I moved only legally. They snatched the land from me. I am living alone here. Even if I cede this land, I will not give it to Rajan’s family,” she said.
Rahul is a workshop mechanic and Renjith has completed Plus Two. Other neighbours support Rajan’s family due to Vasantha’s alleged “arrogant attitude”. On Tuesday, a group of residents staged a protest in front of Vasantha’s house demanding her arrest and disciplinary action against police. The family also wanted to register a murder case against Vasantha and ASI Anilkumar whose intervention had allegedly led to the couple’s death.