Officials of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) have unearthed a huge scam where a prime property worth ₹257 crore belonging to Sri Vadapalani Andavar Temple and 64 individuals in Madambakkam here was transferred to a private person by way of a Settlement Deed.
Investigators have registered a case of criminal conspiracy and cheating against R. Vivekanandan, the then Sub-Registrar, Tambaram, and at present Sub-Registrar, Velachery, and three others. They invoked provisions under the Prevention of Corruption Act against the accused persons.
According to the First Information Report, Nagavelu Pillai purchased a property in Madambakkam in the year 1934 and later sold it to Bangarusamy Naidu in 1937. The latter being an ardent devotee of Sri Vadapalani Andavar used to sponsor the expenses for conducting the Meenakshi-Sokkanathar festival every year.
Conditional settlement
In 1943, he executed a document transferring the property in favour of Sri Vadapalani Andavar Devasthanam. However, he laid a condition that after his lifetime, his legal heirs should continue to meet the expenses of the festival failing which the temple authorities could take possession of the land and use the income generated from it for conducting the festival.
As per the conditions, the lands were under the possession and control of his legal heir Meerakalidoss who, till date, was meeting the expenses of the annual festival.
Under these circumstances, Amutha filed a petition in a court in Gingee in 2016 against her sons K. Mani and K. Ramesh over partition of several lands in Villupuram, Kancheepuram and Chennai districts. In the list of properties, she included the assets belonging to Sri Vadapalani Andavar temple. During pendency of the case, both parties entered into a settlement and filed a petition before the court on the agreement over sharing the properties. The court passed a decree based on the petition in 2017.
Rules violated
On the basis of the court order, Mani and Ramesh presented a Settlement Deed involving the 14.8 acres, of which 9.86 acres belonged to the temple and the remaining to 64 persons who had individual pattas, in favour of their father Kandasamy Gounder. The registering authority, without verifying the ownership of the properties, executed the Settlement Deed on October 23, 2017.
“The total area of the property is 14 acres 80 cents and situated in a prime location of Madambakkam village. The approximate market value of the total property is ₹257,87,52,000 (as per the official website of the Registration Department),” the DVAC said in the FIR. The investigators said the original civil suit was filed not to claim ownership of the properties and none of the patta holders of the properties were included as a part in the case. The Sub-Registrar’s Office should have collected the previous original documents and perused the latest Encumbrance Certificate of the lands to verify ownership of the lands before effecting the registration.
A petition filed by Kandasamy Gounder seeking transfer of patta in his name was pending with the tahsildhar, Tambaram.
The act of the registering official caused a huge loss to the Sri Vadapalani Andavar Temple and 64 patta holders. “It shows that the suspect/accused officer has abused his official position by violating the rules laid down by the Registration Department for obvious reason thereby causing loss to the HR&CE Department and wrongful gain to private individuals,” the DVAC said.
