A 74-year-old ex-serviceman has knocked on the doors of the Chief Minister’s Office to help him get back his land bought in a court auction in 1978, which is now with a government official.
Retired squadron leader A Muthukrishnan has all official documents besides a High Court order, but is unable to get back the 3.16 acre of land that is worth `3 crore. Muthukrishnan says that the property is now being claimed by N Kaliyamoorthi, a Village Administrative Officer (VAO) at Vasathpur village in Chidambaram.
Interestingly, the VAO has written a couple of letters to Muthukrishnan. In one such letter dated February 27, 2003, Kaliyamoorthy has urged Muthukrishnan to give the land to him at a reasonable rate following which he will rename the colony as Muthukrishnan Colony.
Muthukrishnan even obtained a HC order in his favour after the heirs, whose property was sold in court auction, demanded back the property. Kaliyamoorthy, who doesn’t have any share in the land since it is a court property auctioned to Muthukrishnan, is paying the property tax. “This shows how vulnerable the common man is to a government official. The property is a court property. How could the VAO build a double-storeyed building on the land when all documents are in my name,” asks the septuagenarian.
“The irony is that he is paying the house tax when he is not the legal heir. He is only a government official and has built a building worth Rs 70 lakh on my land,” the ex-serviceman laments.When ‘Express’ contacted Kaliyamoorthy, he said, “Let the court give eviction order, then I will vacate. A petition is pending in the court.”
