Foul play alleged in Harrisons case

Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala on Wednesday accused the State government of foul play in the way it handled the Harrisons Malayalam case in the Kerala High Court. In a statement here, he alleged that the government had deliberately lost the case by not processing it properly and not producing important documents related to the holdings in 38,000 acres.

This was the second case, after the dispute over the ownership of 7,000 acres of forestland at Ponthanpuzha, where the government had lost out in courts, he said.

“It is indeed alarming that the State loses land-related cases one after the other ever since the LDF assumed power. I suspect there is corruption in this. The government is alienating public property one by one,” he said.

The steps taken by the LDF, including removing Susheela Bhatt as government pleader, were clearly meant to sabotage the case, he said.

Sudheeran’s take

KPCC former president V.M. Sudheeran said in a Facebook post that the government’s decision to accept the Law Secretary’s report that termed the Rajamanickam committee recommendations as unconstitutional and that government land could not be resumed had already cast the die for an adverse High Court verdict.

BJP flays govt

The setback in the case is the outcome of a conspiracy by the Law and Revenue Departments, BJP MP national executive member V. Muraleedharan has said.

Inaugurating an SC/ST Karma Samiti march here on Wednesday, he said the government was courting defeat by engaging pleaders who were not conversant with the details of the case.

The spirit of the verdict would reflect on the Cheruvally estate too that is under the possession of the Believers’ Church. The government would have to buy its own land from the Church for setting up an airport there, he said.