TO Sooraj in trouble for handing heritage fort away

KASARGOD: Tainted IAS officer T.O. Sooraj is once again in the dock for passing an order to hand over a heritage fort in Kasargod, originally owned by the government, to private parties.

He signed the order while he was the land revenue commissioner. Considering a complaint from Saji Sebastian, who claimed to be a co-owner of the property, Mr Sooraj instructed the Kasargod collector to ensure ‘appellant’s legal rights to the property’.

However, the collectorate did not follow the order and wrote back a letter instead, saying the property originally own-ed by the state and the archaeological department was in the process of renovating the fort.

“We have a superior’s order with us and we cannot sit on it. We have written back to the land revenue commissionerate, quoting a High Court order and Kozhikode land appellate authority that had confirmed government’s ownership over the land and the fort,”  collector P.S. Muhammed Sagir told DC.

The conspiracy to snatch away the Kasaragod Fort, believed to be built in 1899, and 5.14 acres of land around it was hatched in 2009 when the then tahsildar instructed the village officer to accept land tax from one Aswin Chandavarkar, who claimed to be the descendant of those who built the fort.

The village office collected the tax without any inspection. “It was a mistake by the tahsildar and the village officer. The party who paid the tax had created the document for the property and registered it,” Mr Sagir said.

The property was then sold to three persons by Aswin Chandrawarkar and the sale deed and acceptance of tax were cancelled and nullified by the collectorate in a 2010 order.

In 2013, the ‘purchasers’ of the property approached Mr Sooraj who overlooked the notes from then district collector and a HC order that confirmed the government’s claim, passed an order in favour of the private party.