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Two of the three Augustine brothers, key accused in the 2020 Muttil tree-felling case in Wayanad, surrendered before the Chottanikkara Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Ernakulam on Tuesday, August 11, in a separate cheating case linked to the alleged sale of illegally felled timber.
Jose Kutty Augustine and Anto Augustine, the second and third accused in the case, surrendered after the court issued non-bailable warrants against them for failing to appear. Their elder brother and the first accused, Roji Augustine, did not surrender before the court on Tuesday.
According to reports, the magistrate court recalled the warrants against Jose Kutty and Anto after they appeared and granted them bail. The court directed all three accused to appear before it for the formal framing of charges.
The three brothers are key accused in the 2020 Muttil tree-felling case, in which rosewood trees were allegedly cut down from assigned land in Wayanas. The cheating and fraud case, registered by Ambalamedu Police in Ernakulam, relates to the alleged sale of timber from the trees.
According to the prosecution, the brothers allegedly cheated MM Aliyar, proprietor of Malabar Timber Industries, of Rs 1.4 crore. They allegedly collected the money in multiple advance installments after agreeing to sell him 54 pieces of timber. The timber, however, allegedly consisted of protected rosewood and teak that had been illegally cut from the Meppadi Forest Range in Wayanad without the necessary permissions from the Revenue or Forest departments.
The FIR was registered against the brothers under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The Kerala High Court later quashed the charge under Section 406, while retaining the cheating charge.
In July 2026, the High Court dismissed the brothers’ discharge petitions, allowing the criminal proceeding on the cheating charges to continue.
The Augustine brothers also took control of Malayalam news channel Reporter TV in July 2023 and relaunched it. Around the same period, they filed a civil suit before a Bengaluru City Civil Court against Google, Meta, X, and 12 major media outlets, including The News Minute, Asianet News, and Manorama News, over reports concerning the criminal cases against them. The court initially issued a temporary gag order restraining the defendants from publishing certain material about the brothers. In January 2026, however, the Bengaluru court dismissed the suit.