The government is considering a CBI probe into the Nelliyampathy issue in the wake of a fresh demand by the green brigade of the UDF legislators, home minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan has said.
“Earlier the demand was for a crime branch probe. We ordered that. The fresh demand for a CBI probe too would be examined and an appropriate decision taken," he said.
‘Green’ legislators V.D. Sateeshan, T.N. Prathapan, Hibi Eden and M.V. Sreyamskumar submitted a report to the UDF Nelliyampathy sub-committee convener A.N. Rajan Babu on Sunday, based on their visit to the estates a week ago.
They said that contrary to claims of UDF chief whip PC George, the estate owners were not small farmers but those who had usurped forest land after expiry of the lease period.
Sateeshan said the team, including VT Balaram, who was not present on Sunday, had gone into the details and found that the Cherunneli estate in the area unlawfully changed hands a few times after the expiry of the lease period in 1980.
The owners were not small farmers, he said, backing forest minister Ganesh Kumar’s demand for a CBI inquiry into the loans the estate received after pledging these properties.
Sateeshan said their inquiry revealed that loans of around Rs14 crore had been availed on the basis of the estate. “The law is that in such cases, the probe should be done by the CBI,” he said.
The government could decide whether such estates should be turned into forests or allowed to remain agriculture land. Also, the government needed to have a fresh setup to present the case in court.
Babu said the contents of the report would be taken up for discussion during the next sitting of the committee.