One more senior official caught in temple land grabbing case in Union Territory

Senior Puducherry official arrested in temple land scam, facing suspension and disciplinary proceedings, along with other accused officials.

One more senior official part of the Puducherry Administration has been caught on the wrong side of the law after the Special Investigation Team of the Karaikal Police, probing attempts to usurp the property of Sri Parvatheeswarar Swamy Devasthanam, made a significant arrest of G. Johnson, who was serving as Deputy Collector, Revenue in the Karaikal enclave of the Union Territory, in connection with the temple land scam.

The SIT, which took up the probe into the temple land grabbing case last month, arrested Mr. Johnson on October 10 and remanded him to judicial custody. According to the Karaikal police, Mr. Johnson was arrested after the SIT arraigned him as an accused in the case pertaining to forging of documents for creating fake patta of the temple land with the intention to sell the property to private individuals. 

The arrest and detention of the officer for more than 48 hours would naturally create a situation where he would be deemed to be suspended from the post.  

“As per the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965, a government servant is deemed to have been placed under suspension with effect from the date of his detention for a period exceeding 48-hours. It’s more than 48 hours now, so it means he is under suspension though the official order may come any time,” an official told The Hindu.

Apart from Mr. Johnson, the SIT has arrested deputy surveyor of Karaikal Municipality Sachi alias Renuga; K. Sivaraman, a land broker and P. Thirumalai Rajan, an office worker of JCP Anandh alias Aandhkumar, who is the main accused in the case. The police has issued a lookout circular against JCP Anandh after he evaded the arrest, sources said.

According to police, the accused created fake documents with the intention to sell around 180 plots carved out of the temple land adjacent to acquisition done for a project under taken by the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL). The accused collected around ₹ 3 crore from 100 persons with the motive to sell the land, police said.

Mr. Johnson will be the third senior official in the Puducherry administration to face disciplinary proceedings within a short span after being arrested in connection with temple land grabbing cases. Last year, two senior officials, Ramesh (who served as Director of Survey, Settlement and Land Records) and D. Balaji (who served as Director of Fisheries) were suspended for their involvement in the Kamatchiamman temple land grabbing case. Both of them are facing criminal as well as disciplinary proceedings.