Ananthapuri Manikandan, a Congress District Committee member and a key accused in the Rs1.5 crore Kowdiar land scam, has been arrested in Bengaluru after being absconding for some time.
Manikandan is a close associate of senior Congress leader and former Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar. The scam involved fraudulent takeover of property owned by an expatriate woman named Dora. The fraudsters used a lookalike, Vasantha from Mukkola, to impersonate Dora during the land transfer. Two other accused, Merin Jacob and Vasantha, played crucial roles in executing the scam.
Manikandan reportedly supplied the forged documents that facilitated the illegal transfer of the property.
Despite Manikandan’s links with prominent Congress leaders such as Ramesh Chennithala, K. Muraleedharan, and V.D. Satheesan, the party leadership has yet to comment on the arrest.
He is expected to be brought to Thiruvananthapuram by evening and will be produced before the court following further interrogation.
