Land grab alleged; six persons held

It is valued at around hundreds of crores of rupees

The Vickramasingapuram police are on the lookout for the owner of Kattalaimalai Zamin Estate and her son for allegedly grabbing 150 acres of land from a retired woman professor and issuing death threats to her.

Police said V. Sarojini (73) of Adaiyakarunkulam under Vickramasingapuram police station limits had taken on lease 150 acres of land from Thiruvaavaduthurai Mutt some years ago and had raised hundreds of trees.

As she could not maintain it, Mrs. Sarojini gave the farm on lease for a period of three years in 2009 to M. Vasanthi Rani of Kallidaikurichi, owner of Kattalaimalai Estate.

As the lease period ended recently, Mrs. Sarojini asked Ms. Vasanthi Rani to return the farm to her as per the lease agreement.

Threats

However, Ms. Rani refused to return the farm, valued at around hundreds of crores of rupees, to the retired professor and allegedly threatened her.

Ms. Rani’s son M. Muthukumar and his supporters also reportedly threatened her.

Based on the complaint from Mrs. Sarojini, the police arrested J. Selvaraj (64) of Arumugampatti, G. Suresh (30) of Kallidaikurichi, C. Paramasivan (41) of Moolachchi, P. Balasubramanian (24) of Kallidaikurichi, S. Muthu (27) of Vellankuzhi and S. Saminathan (45) of Kallidaikurichi on Tuesday.

The hunt is on to nab Ms. Rani and Mr. Madhan.

In a related incident, police sources said a lorry driver, who was hired for transporting logs, was stabbed to death in the Kattalaimalai Estate in the Western Ghats a few months ago.

Police suspect a squabble over salary to be the motive for the murder, but are not ruling out a link to illegal logging operations.

“While investigating the complaint of Mrs. Sarojini, we’re probing the murder,” a senior police officer said.