Puducherry: Five booked for grabbing land of French national

PUDUCHERRY: In A high profile land grabbing case, police have booked an industrialist named Abey Joseph of Miami Cushion and arrested four others in connection the illegal takeover of a property in White Town. The property, valued in crores, was owned by 74-year-old French national Julien Anselme Marie Antoine Lebrunie. The son and daughter-in-law of former MLA late Ramajayam are already facing trial for the fraudulent sale of a part of the property after all the three were booked in the case, investigated by CB-CID in 2012.

“Lebrunie is the owner of his ancestral properties at Francois Martin Street, close to S V Patel Salai and Beach Road, through a partition deed,” said Rajiv Ranjan. He also possesses the valid ancestral  documents dating back to 1874, which were duly registered with the Registration Department of Puducherry.

“Due to his work in different countries, Lebrunie could not visit his properties often. Taking advantage of this, his properties were grabbed by two sets of persons through forged documents. These were ‘sold’ and ‘resold’ to people who bought them knowing everything,” said the SSP. While one part of the property was bought by Abey Joseph and his wife Meera Joseph, the other part was bought by one Seenuloganathan, both through resale.

On December 28, Lebrunie went to the properly to clean it up for constructing a house. He was stopped by henchmen. Wielding deadly weapons, these men verbally abused him and the workers he had brought, threatening them against returning to the plot. Following this, Lebrunie filed a compliant with Grand Bazaar Police. During the investigation, it was revealed that one Clement impersonating as a Joseph Raj, son of Samuel Lebrunie, had sold the property to the accused Alexander Joseph using forged documents on May 19, 2002. However, Lebrunie denied the existence of any Joseph Raj in the family.

Notably, Clement again sold the property to Kulandhini, daughter-in-law of former MLA late Ramajayam on September 4, 2002. Kulandhini in turn sold it on April 11, 2003 to Abey Joseph. Clement was later arrested.

Kulandhini, her husband Sivaprakasam and Ramajayam were booked by the CB-CID on charges of forgery, fraud and cheating in 2012. The first two are now facing trial. For another part of Lebrunie’s property in the same street, Sivaprakasam, Krishnamurthy and Bama Parameshwari jointly created three forged Notarial Sale Deeds in the name of Seenuloganathan.

The accused had also created three fictitious persons in the name of Seenuloganathan and fought in different legal forums. Their appeal was struck down as the documents were found to be fabricated. The police have restored control of the property to the owner.