T’puram: Museum police probing the Kowdiar land grab case arrested the brother of the key accused after discovering that an amount was paid to the treasury for property registration using his vendor licence.Mahesh C A, 47, son of Chandrasekharan Nair of Ganapathy Bhadra House at MR Hills near Puthancotta at Attukal, was arrested after it was found that Rs 14 lakh was paid to the treasury using his vendor licence to buy e-stamp and also as a registration fee.Meanwhile, a lookout notice was issued against the key accused, Ananthapuri Manikantan, who is absconding. He was the district committee member of the Congress party and also a vendor. The district leadership suspended him from the party on Monday following his involvement in the fraud.By forging the documents, the accused snatched a land at Kowdiar, and sold it later to Sasthamangalam native Chandrasenan, 60. The actual owner of the property, Dora Asariya Crips, is settled in America. In her absence, Karakulam native Vasantha, 76, posed as Dora and registered the land to Merin, 27, of Punalur. Merin posed as the stepdaughter of Dora. Later, Merin sold the land to Chandrasenan for Rs 1.5cr. Merin, Vasantha and Mahesh have been arrested so far in the case. They claimed that they acted as per the direction of Manikantan.“Except for paying the amount in the treasury, no payment was made between Chandrasenan and Merin or any of the accused. Chandrasenan is also not cooperating with the probe as he has not presented the original deed of the document but he still claims that the money was paid. He failed to produce any proof to substantiate the claim. Only after arresting Manikantan clear picture of the fraud will be known, and we have intensified the search for him,” police said.Meanwhile, the sessions court rejected the pre-arrest bail plea of Manikantan but granted bail to Chandrasenan considering his age.
