Kozhikode District Congress Committee President T Siddique has once again found himself at the centre of a controversy. A complaint against him alleges that a few years ago, he helped the relative of a late judicial magistrate to illegally grab the magistrate’s assets in exchange for one acre of land.
A complainant named Hafees recently sent a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stating that assets of late Judicial Magistrate Lincoln Abraham, who passed away in 2011, were grabbed by his brother and a few Congress leaders.
Lincoln had reportedly donated 27 acres of land to a charitable trust in his father's name. After the retired judicial magistrate’s death, when the trustees started the procedure to acquire the property, his brother Philomin claimed that he owns the property, saying that it was transferred to his name four months before Lincoln’s death.
The complainant has alleged that Philomin used an illegal document to make the claim of ownership, and T Siddique helped him get the document. According to other reports, the Congress leaders altered Lincoln’s will by taking his thumbprint on an altered version of his will when the retired magistrate was in a vegetative state.
The complaint says that few Congress leaders helped Philomin in exchange for one acre of land being gifted to T Siddique and some others party leaders. Congress leaders Habeeb Thambi, DCC General Secretary, former Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee Secretary Abdu Rehman are the other Congress leaders mentioned in the complaint.
The complainant has also submitted few supporting documents. The Chief Minister reportedly forwarded the complaint to Kozhikode Rural SP, and later, the Thamarassery DySP was made in charge of the enquiry. Police have reportedly started the primary investigation.
Siddique has denied all the allegations. He said that one of the stakeholders in the issue was his classmate, and that the Congress leader had just participated in compromise talks over the asset. He has denied that he received anything in return, and added that he will take legal action against the allegations.
Recently a video of Siddique's desert safari has surfaced in social media, with allegations that he was drunk while on it. Siddique had responded saying that he had never consumed alcohol in his life that somebody was trying to malign his name.