Chandy's ex-gunman, nine others arrested for usurping land

The CBI on Wednesday arrested Salim Raj, the former gunman of Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, and nine others on charges of usurping land at two places in the state.

Six people were arrested from state capital Thiruvananthapuram and are related to Raj, while three revenue department officials were arrested from Kochi.

The arrested people allegedly tried to usurp about 45 acres of land in the capital, and around 1.16 acres in Kochi. The total value of the land is around Rs.400 crore.

After their arrest, they were taken for a medical check-up and later produced before a CBI court here and sent to the probe agency's custody.

The CBI had decided to take up the case in March last year following a private complaint and after a state government request.

The issue was also raised in the Kerala assembly last year.

Chandy had then said the case had first come up in 2007 when V.S. Achuthanandan was the chief minister, and after a police probe, they closed the case saying there was nothing criminal in nature, and was just a civil case.

Kerala Police constable Raj was Chandy's gunman but was removed from the security job in 2013 after it was alleged that he had close contacts with Saritha Nair, one of the key accused in the infamous solar scam.

Raj's wife, who works in the revenue department, has also been arraigned and is one of the 27 accused in the land usurping case.

Reacting to the arrest, state Congress president V.M. Sudheeran said there was nothing unusual in it.

"What happened today was the law taking its course and nothing more needs to be looked into it," said Sudheeran.