A government order puts Kerala's anti-corruption bureau on a 4,896 acre KIIFB land acquisition in Kannur

31 October 2026

A government order issued on Friday has handed the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau a detailed inquiry into land acquisition by the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board. A Special Investigation Team headed by DIG Thomson Jose, with officers of the Bureau, will carry it out. The inquiry rests on the findings of an expert panel headed by retired Indian Administrative Service officer Sudha Pillai, which the state set up to review how KIIFB works. The land in question is the 4,896 acres in Kannur district cleared for industrial projects, part of 5,336 acres in all that also takes in 470 acres in Palakkad. The board approved the acquisition at its thirty-third meeting in October 2018, at an estimated cost of Rs 12,710 crore. A preliminary inquiry will come first, and a case would be registered only after that. The Chief Minister has also raised questions about a proposal to take another 4,000 acres in Kannur.