The Vigilance Court at Thalassery on Thursday ordered further inquiry to find out if Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musaliar, leader of a Sunni faction, had any role in the alleged illegal land deal involving the historic cinnamon plantation at Anjarakandy here. The court ordered further inquiry by an official with a rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police, while considering the plea of A.K. Shaji, a native of Iritty here, that the Musaliar should be named accused in the land deal case. Judge V. Jayaram rejected the petitioner’s plea, while ordering further probe. Mr. Shaji’s allegation was that the cinnamon plantation was earlier in the name of the Musaliar’s organisation, Markazu Saquafathi Sunniya, and that it was later fraudulently transferred by altering the classification of the land from ‘estate’ to ‘garden.’ The land deal case is that the 300-acre cinnamon plantation, popularly known as Brown’s estate because it was established by Murdoch Brown of the East India Company in 1767, was transferred to others by fraudulently altering the classification of the land. Nine people were named as accused in the case, including two Revenue officials. — Special Correspondent
