Ex-MP held in Chennai on land grab charges

CHENNAI: The sleuths of Central Crime Branch arrested five persons, including a former member of Parliament of Rajya Sabha, on charges of usurping a piece of land worth Rs 2 crore with fake documents at Sholinganallur on Saturday. Police said D Masthan (55), a former Member of Parliament from Wallajah Road and his wife Sivabhakyam (50) were medical practitioners running a hospital at Triplicane. The couple had purchased a piece of land in Sholinganallur and made forged documents to grab a 24-cent plot located adjacent to the one they had purchased. The piece of land that the couple had allegedly grabbed belonged to one Mohammed Hussain of Karnataka who had died in 2008, police said.Police sources said Mastan made a fake gift deed to show as if the property was given to one Jani Basha, a relative of Mastan’s neighbour Hajeera Begum. A sale deed was the made to show as if Basha had sold the land Sivabhakyam’s relatives in Coimbatore. Later a power of attorney was given to the woman.Police arrested Masthan, his wife Sivabhakyam, his neighbour Hajeera Begum, relative Thirunarayanan (46) and driver Saravanan (39), following a complaint from Anwar, a promoter from Adyar to whom the original owner of the property had given a power of attorney. Anwar found that the land was grabbed when he filed for encumbrance certificate for the land.