Allegations on land encroachment 'baseless': Veerendra Kumar

Kozhikode, June 1 (UNI) Refuting the allegations that his family has encroached land in Wayanad district as ''baseless'', Janata Dal(S) parliamentary party leader M P Veerendra Kumar today said ''we are the legitimate owners of the property.'' Referring to the reports that 72.97 acres of Devaswom land at Purakkad here was grabbed by him and his wife Usha Devi, he said in a release that the land was part of ''hundreds of acres of land bequeathed to me and my kith'' as per their family partition deed of 1958.

He said the Kerala State Revenue Department had issued 'pattayam' (title deed) for the land, for which plantation and land tax were paid as per the existing law.

Moreover, Mr Kumar claimed that he was named legal owner of the property as per 1969 survey.

Denying reports on encroachment of 14 acres of land by his son M V Sreyams Kumar, MLA, at Krishnagiri in Sulthan Bathery, he said the property was allocated to his father M K Padmapraba Gowder by the erstwhile Madras government for coffee plantation in 1943.

The family was having the registration certificate issued by then government and tax receipts as well to prove its ownership, he added.

UNI