The Muvattupuzha Vigilance Court on Wednesday rejected a petition filed against former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, former Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash, and others alleging irregularities in a land deal involving Hope Plantation.
In a report,the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) had informed the Muvattupuzha Vigilance Court that Mr. Chandy, Mr. Prakash, and others had no role in the land deal. The VACB had said the State government had not incurred any loss in the land deal as the order granting exemption to 702 acres from the Land Reforms Act had later been scrapped by the previous UDF government itself.
The court pointed out that the fact that the government had cancelled the exemption order clearly “negate any misconduct or criminal conspiracy to commit any of the offences alleged in the case.” Besides, there was “no material to show a criminal conspiracy or misconduct on the part of the respondents”.
Besides Mr. Chandy and Mr. Prakash, Additional Chief Secretary Viswas Mehta and managing directors of the three plantation companies were listed as other respondents.
The petition was filed by social activist G. Gireesh Babu, According to him, the the previous UDF government had granted exemption to 702 acres of government land from Section 81(3) of the Land Reforms Act, 1963, and assigned it to Hope Plantation, Bethel Plantation, and Life Time Plantation, causing a loss of around ₹356 crore to the exchequer.
