In an FIR filed by the Kerala Vigilance Department on Saturday in front of a special Vigilance court in Thiruvananthapuram, former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has been named as the fourth accused in the Pattoor land grab case.

The first and second accused are Somasekharan and Madhu, both Kerala Water Authority (KWA) officials, former Chief Secretary Bharat Bhushan is the third, while Ashok - the Managing Director of the Artech Group of Builders - is the fifth accused in the shady land deal that rocked the previous UDF regime in Kerala.

The FIR was filed against the unlawful appropriation of prime public land at Pattoor that lies in the heart of the state capital.

Kerala Administrative Reforms Committee Chairman and CPI(M) veteran VS Achuthanandan had earlier filed a petition in the court against the state Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) for its delay in registering an FIR, despite overwhelming evidence that the UDF government had helped a private builder gain illegal ownership of government land.

The builder is said to have reportedly erected a building on KWA land that had a sewage pipeline running through it. The orientation of the said pipeline was changed by the first and second accused without the concurrence of KWA Directorial Board, to enable the Artech group to usurp the said land.

The special court had in January upbraided the VACB for its failure to register a First Information Report (FIR) despite prime facie evidence of encroachment of government land by a private person.