Nine acquitted in land purchasing case

A court in Melur in the district today acquitted nine persons, including PRP granite partners Palanisamy, Mallika and Subramanian, in a criminal case filed against them on charges of buying a land belonging to a local temple by fraudulent means.
The PRP partners were accused of buying 10.88 acres of temple land by fraudulent means some years ago on a complaint given by one Gopalakrishnan.
Magistrate Mahendra Boopathy said there was no prima facie case to indicate that impersonation or forgery of documents had taken place.
It was a civil dispute and only a civil court could decide on the issue. Only after the civil court decided on the matter, a criminal case could be filed.

All the nine accused in the case were being acquitted under Criminal Procedure Code, the Magistrate said.
More than 200 criminal cases had been filed against PRP granites and other firms and this was the first criminal case to be decided.
Besides purchasing land by fraudulent means, the granite company had been accused of damaging irrigation channels, water sources and causing a loss to the tune of Rs 16,000 crore by resorting to illegal mining.