“My father is a heart patient. We are being threatened to vacate our land. We are facing threats. If some authorities can help in any way… please, we beg you... My family is in trouble,” a panic-struck woman from Idukki was seen saying in a Facebook live on Tuesday.
The woman, seen in the video along with her father, alleges that workers of a private firm in Idukki’s Pambanar region, near Peerumedu, were trying to throw her family out from their 34 acres of land which has been in their possession for more than a decade.
Thirty-six-year old Niti Singh and her father PK Singh, a native of Uttar Pradesh, have been living in Kerala for more than 40 years. They can be seen pleading throughout the live video, asking authorities to intervene and help them from people, allegedly workers of Poabs Group, a private company, from ousting them from land bought by the family. In the video, however, the workers cannot be seen issuing any threats.
Talking to TNM, Niti says that for the past many years her family has been fighting for the right to live on the land at Pambanar, which they bought back in 2006.
According to Niti, her father, who was an employee of Ram Bahadur Thakur (RBT) Private Ltd, purchased 34 acres of land belonging to the company in 2006.
“My father bought the property in my mother Kusum Singh’s name. But later, RBT was taken over by the Poabs Group. Since then they have been trying to reclaim the land from us and we have been fighting a legal battle. But there is no money left for my parents anymore to follow up on the case,” Niti says.
Niti’s family, including her parents and husband, who had camped on the land since Monday allege that they were surrounded by about hundred workers of Poabs plantations on Tuesday. Police who arrived at the spot gave protection to the family; by evening, the family members were taken into preventive custody.
According to Peerumedu police, the disputed property and the adjacent acres of land belonging to RBT were taken over by the government after the company went into loss and the Poabs Group bought the auctioned property from the government.
“The family had purchased the disputed piece of land from RBT earlier, but Poabs is saying that the government sold them the whole property, including these 34 acres. That is the basis of the dispute,” a police official said. The police officer also said that the 'threats against the family were not serious in nature'.
Niti also alleged that some company staff have raised threats against her and her family, and that one person threatened her with rape. “The workers here don’t know anything about the case or that my father bought the land paying money to RBT. They are being made to misinterpret the matter by the company, so they consider us encroachers,” Niti says.
Meanwhile, Poabs officials told TNM that they were not aware about workers acting against the family in Peerumedu.
“The case regarding this is under the consideration of the court. I cannot comment on it, but we have not directed any workers to obstruct anyone,” said Thomas Jacob, director of Poabs Group.
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