Ingen's estate, a mystery piece of land for decades

KALPETTA: The 211-acres Alathur estate at Kattikulam near Mananthavady in Wayanad district has been a mysterious piece of land for the natives. 

Its owner, Edwin Joubert Van Ingen, a Dutch national, died on March 12, 2013, aged 101, sans progeny to inherit his wealth. Later, many came up with claims, and it caught in a dispute.

Michael Floyd Eshwar, a Bengaluru based land dealer, the self-declared foster son of the Dutchman, then grabbed the land allegedly forging documents.

The fraudulent attempt was exposed when a section of employees of the estate came out against it. For a year the aged man with no kith and kin to look after was allegedly under house arrest.

Adding more to the mystery, he died a day after he had filed a complaint at the Nazarbad police station, Mysuru, against Mr Eshwar for allegedly taking over his land through a forcibly executed gift deed in 2006.

Investigations revealed a criminal conspiracy, for which sleuths arrested Mr Eshwar.  They later arrested Dr N. Chandrasekhar, director of a Mysuru hospital, for conspiring with Mr Easwar to execute the gift deed.

He had sold the plantation to a physician at Kozhikode Medical College in 2004, but that too ended up in court as Mr Van Ingen failed to execute the deed.