Congress Fraud in Land Purchased for Landslide Victims in Wayand

Thiruvananthapuram: The CPI(M) has levelled serious allegations of financial fraud against the Congress over funds collected in the name of rehabilitation for survivors of the Mundakkai–Chooralmala landslide disaster in Wayanad, pointing to a significant discrepancy between the amount claimed to have been paid for land and the figure recorded in the sale deed.

KPCC President Sunny Joseph told reporters on Thursday that the Congress had paid five crore rupees to purchase land for disaster survivors. However, the registered sale deed shows the actual amount paid as ₹3,21,25,500 — a difference of approximately ₹1.75 crore. CPI(M) State Secretary M. V. Govindan said this discrepancy, revealed by the KPCC President's own statement, proved that the fraud had begun from the very act of purchasing the land.

CPI(M) Wayanad District Secretary K. Rafeek, writing on Facebook, said the gap between the claimed and documented figures made it evident that money had been siphoned off even in the land transaction, and called on the party to release bank records so the public could verify whether the five crore rupees Joseph claimed to have paid was actually transferred.

According to information that has emerged from within the Congress itself, the party collected approximately ₹150 crore through a dedicated mobile application in the name of building homes for Mundakkai–Chooralmala landslide victims. The CPI(M) alleged that the sheer scale of the collection was precisely why the funds and the application were subsequently buried from public scrutiny, and that a portion of this money was being channelled into the party's election campaign spending.

The Congress, along with the Youth Congress, had promised a total of 230 homes to survivors — 100 each announced by Rahul Gandhi and the KPCC, and 30 by the Youth Congress. After collecting crores and spending one and a half years, the party has so far laid the foundation stone for only 50 houses, with no accounting provided for the funds raised. The fundraising drive was also conducted in parallel with a campaign against the Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund, yet neither Rahul Gandhi nor Priyanka Gandhi contributed to that fund. Priyanka Gandhi stated that there was no obligation to direct MP funds to the state government.

The CPI(M) alleged that the decision to purchase a three-acre coffee estate in Kunnambatta — an area reportedly troubled by wild elephant activity — and lay a foundation stone there was a calculated move to deflect scrutiny once it became clear that the misappropriation of the collected funds would become a political liability.

Meanwhile, the state government has completed the first phase of the township for disaster survivors and handed over 178 completed houses to the affected families.