THANJAVUR: A magistrate court in Tiruvaiyaru in Thanjavur district issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against T V Sundaravadhanam, the elder brother of V K Sasikala, in a land grabbing case.
According to sources, M Valarmathi, wife of Manoharan of South Main street, Thanjavur owned around 4.5-acre land in Rajendram Arcadu village in Tiruvaiyaru taluk. Valarmathi and Manoharan had created an orchard in their land including 460 coconut trees, 63 mango trees, and also had pump sets. The couple decided to sell the property for Rs. 35 lakhs to a timber depot owner in Thanjavur and entered into a pre-sale agreement on October 10, 2008, and also got an advance of Rs. 15 lakhs.
Meanwhile, T V Sundaravadhanam who came to know about the sales process of the land started pressuring to the couple from November 2008 onwards to sell the land to him according to a petition filed later by Valarmathi in the court.
According to the petition, the henchmen of Sundaravadhanam including a former municipal councilor threatened the couple and also took their children in a car and forcibly registered the land in T V Sundaravadhanam's name on December 4, 2008.
Though the registered value of the property was around Rs. 65 lakhs, T V Sundaravadhanam reportedly gave a cheque only for Rs. 6.5 lakhs to Valarmathi and did not pay the remaining Rs. 57.82 lakhs, the petition said.
Valarmathi and Manoharan have been fighting since to reclaim their land. As their pleas to the District police went unheeded, Valarmathi approached the Special Court for a trial of the land grabbing cases in 2015, and on the orders of the court the Anti-land grabbing cell of the District Crime Branch (DCB) registered a case.
The FIR was registered on October 3, 2015, against T V Sundaravadhanam and 11 others including his close relative R Mathiyazhagan, a former municipal councillor P Rajeswaran and timber depot owner Murugaraj for various charges including criminal conspiracy, cheating. The DCB had framed charges and submitted the charge sheets to the Tiruvaiyaru Magistrate court recently.
T V Sundharavadhanam and others were charged under sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 384 (extortion), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating). However, as the accused did not appear in the court the charge sheets are yet to be served to them.
Meanwhile, the court has issued non-bailable arrest warrants recently against T V Sundaravadhanam and others. According to prosecution sources, the District Crime Branch (DCB) police have been reporting on record that the accused were absconding. The next hearing of the case has been posted for October 6, 2020.