Businessman wanted in Kerala’s Jawahar Nagar real-estate grab case nabbed from Chennai

The Museum police on Sunday (October 26, 2025) arrested Anil Thampi, 48, a businessman wanted in connection with an elaborate real estate scam Jawahar Nagar, an upscale residential locality in Thiruvananthapuram.

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Cantonment, Stuart Keeler, said a plainclothes crime squad arrested Mr. Thampi from Chennai early Sunday (October 26).  He said the case concerned the illegal acquisition and subsequent sale of an expansive mansion on 14 cents of prime land at Jawahar Nagar, an upscale residential locality in the city. 

ACP Keeler said the ten-room house remained unoccupied for decades after its owner, a doctor, migrated to the United States. 

The police case stated that Mr. Thampi recruited a woman, Merin, from Kollam, to impersonate as the doctor’s adopted daughter to usurp the property and finally mutate it in his relative’s name. The charges against Mr. Thampi included impersonation, conspiracy, forgery, and confidence trickery, among other sections.

According to the police, Ms. Merin approached the Revenue and Municipal Corporation authorities early this year, stating that she had misplaced the title deed for the property.

Subsequently, Ms. Merin allegedly used fake documents to stake her claim as the doctor’s “legal heir” to take possession of the property. 

The police said Ms. Merin and Mr. Thampi used the services of a Congress leader with political connections, Ananthapuri Manikandan, to move the “fraudulent ownership” claim through the concerned departments. 

Subsequently, the accused “sold” the property to a woman, Vasantha, whom the police suspect was Mr. Thampi’s front in the crime. Ms. Vasantha later transferred the property to Mr. Thampi’s father-in-law. 

The police were also investigating revenue department officials who issued the title deed in Ms. Merin’s name without due diligence and later helped her transfer it to Ms. Vasantha’s name.

Ms. Vasantha, another suspected front for Mr. Thampi, later “sold the property to the accused’s father-in-law.

The police were probing the possible anti-corruption angle in the case and might name errant officials as accused. They would submit their findings to the court, government and the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau for further action. 

Earlier, the police had arrested Ms. Merin and also Mr. Manikandan and remanded them in judicial custody.  However, Mr. Thampi remained elusive. The police issued a lookout notice for him. They also tracked his online digital footprint and zeroed in on his “safe house” in Chennai. 

Mr. Keeler said the police have produced Mr. Thampi before a magistrate in Chennai and secured a transfer warrant to escort him to Thiruvananthapuram for production before the Judicial First Class Magistrate, III, Thiruvananthapuram.