Land dealing case: Revenue department surveys Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan's ancestral home

The Vigilance is primarily investigating how someone who earned less than Rs 1 crore over the course of eight years could buy a home worth Rs 3.5 crore in only one year in 2021. Following a directive from the Vigilance, the Revenue Department undertook an additional survey of the land next to Kuzhalnadan's ancestral home.

Ernakulam:  The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has launched a preliminary inquiry into the land deal of Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan at Chinnakanal in Idukki district. In accordance with the Prevention of Corruption Act, the bureau received a complaint, which is the basis for the investigation.

The Vigilance made it clear that the current procedures were not an actual inquiry but rather a first look at the problems brought up in the petition.
Currently serving as a Muvattupuzha member, Kuzhalnadan registered the land at Chinnakanal in March 2021 and paid the seller Rs 1.92 crore for the land and the building on it.

However, he had listed the property's valuation as Rs 3.5 crore in the affidavit he had provided to the Election Commission in the same month.

Kuzhalnadan explained this inconsistency by stating that although a portion of the land was registered later, the payment for it had already been made.

Additionally, he said that he had spent a sizable sum of money on enhancing the structure and land that had previously come into his ownership. However, Kuzhalnadan's personal income from 2013 to 2021 was only Rs 91.58 lakh. The Vigilance is primarily investigating how someone who earned less than Rs 1 crore over the course of eight years could buy a home worth Rs 3.5 crore in only one year in 2021.

Revenue Department survey 

Following a directive from the Vigilance, the Revenue Department undertook an additional survey of the land next to Kuzhalnadan's ancestral home. On the eastern edge of Ernakulam district, in the village of Ayankara in Kothamangalam Taluk, the resurvey was carried out starting at 11 a.m. on Friday.