MADURAI: The chairman of Palani municipality, who claimed to be a devotee of Dhandapani Swamy Mutt, has moved a petition before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, seeking a CBI probe into the case involving the fraudulent registration of 1.4 acres of land belonging to the mutt in the names of private individuals.
R Uma Maheshwari Pradeep alleged in her petition that the property was endowed to the mutt by one Kuppusamy Maniyakkar in 1988. The gift deed mentioned that the property should be used as a source of income to maintain the mutt and should not be sold or encumbered.
However, the property was later encroached upon, and after several decades of legal battles, it was restored to the mutt last year and has since been used as a free parking facility for pilgrims and devotees visiting the hill temple, she added.
But attempts were once again made to alienate the property in March this year, and despite objections raised by the mutt, the property was registered in favour of two individuals — K Vellathurai and D Sethupathi, Maheshwari noted.
Citing that the regular sub-registrar had been absent during this crucial time and a sub-registrar from Kodaikanal had been made to hold additional charge of the post to register the document, she suspected that several officials were involved in facilitating the same.
Also noting that the property, whose market value is said to be `100 crore, had been undervalued and sold at `2 crore, indicating the involvement of several officials other than the one arrayed as accused in the case, she added.
Further noting that the temple’s joint commissioner was given temporary promotion days after, the petitioner questioned the connection between both incidents. Since there are also allegations that the buyers were relatives of two ministers, she requested the court to order a CBI probe into the case.
The petition was listed before Justice L Victoria Gowri for deciding maintainability. But the judge instructed the Registry to list the case before the appropriate bench.
