{"id":2105,"date":"2026-09-21T08:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T08:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/2026\/09\/21\/ownership-dispute-wayanad-house-liquor-seizure\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T08:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T08:31:14","slug":"ownership-dispute-wayanad-house-liquor-seizure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/2026\/09\/21\/ownership-dispute-wayanad-house-liquor-seizure\/","title":{"rendered":"Ownership dispute over Wayanad house amid liquor seizure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- Quick Adsense WordPress Plugin: http:\/\/quickadsense.com\/ -->\n<div class=\"9fece8afa224fd09e54b043d0febfb58\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- NR ATF -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8898941184964366\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"4839033563\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>After the Kerala Excise Department seized more than 64 litres of liquor from Moongananiyil House in Karappuzha, Muttil, Wayanad district, questions have arisen about who legally owned the property at the time of the raid. The dispute centres on a State Bank of India (SBI) sale certificate that records a 2022 e\u2011auction sale, while Muttil grama panchayat records continue to list former owner Ant\u202fAugustine as the title\u2011holder and tax payer.<\/p>\n<h2>Seizure and court proceedings<\/h2>\n<p>The excise raid uncovered 43.850 litres of Foreign Made Foreign Liquor, 1.244 litres of foreign wine, 6.250 litres of KSBC wine, a 750\u202fml bottle of Indian Made Foreign Liquor marked for military or canteen use, and 12.750 litres of an unspecified alcoholic liquid, bringing the total to 64.844 litres. The property, identified as building No\u202f10\/603 at Vazhavatta, Muttil, was presented to the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Sulthan\u202fBathery as being owned by Ant\u202fAugustine, the managing editor of Reporter Broadcasting Company.<\/p>\n<p>During a hearing on Augustine\u2019s bail plea, his counsel submitted the SBI sale certificate to the High Court, asserting that Augustine no longer owned or possessed the house. The defence argued that the 2022 auction transferred both ownership and possession to the purchaser, thereby breaking any link between Augustine and the seized liquor.<\/p>\n<h2>SBI auction and sale certificate<\/h2>\n<p>The sale certificate reveals that the property had been mortgaged to SBI by Augustine as security for a loan extended to Asian Motors, based in Edappally, Kochi. After a repayment default, SBI initiated recovery proceedings and sold the house through an e\u2011auction held on 30\u202fJune\u202f2022. The winning bidder, Lilly\u202fJose, paid \u20b92,00,10,000, and the certificate states that both the property and its possession were transferred to her.<\/p>\n<p>According to the certificate, the land measures 14.67\u202fares (approximately 36.25\u202fcents) and includes a building with a covered area of 4.55\u202fares, or about 4,897\u202fsquare feet. The building certificate produced by the Excise Department lists a larger covered area of 983\u202fsquare metres (roughly 10,581\u202fsquare feet), but both documents refer to the same structure located near the Karappuzha reservoir on the Karappuzha\u2011Kakkavayal road with access to NH\u202f766.<\/p>\n<h2>Panchayat records, tax payments and family links<\/h2>\n<p>Despite the 2022 sale, Muttil panchayat records still show Augustine\u2019s name attached to the house. The panchayat\u2019s building\u2011tax ledger records a payment of \u20b98,472 made on 18\u202fMarch\u202f2026 for the 2025\u201126 financial year, and the property schedule for the year continues to list Augustine as the owner. The discrepancy arises because Lilly\u202fJose, the purchaser, did not apply for mutation of the land records at the Sub\u2011Registrar\u2019s Office after the auction, leaving the official land\u2011registry entry unchanged.<\/p>\n<p>Further investigation has highlighted the family relationship between the parties. Lilly\u202fJose is Augustine\u2019s mother\u2011in\u2011law; her husband, K\u202fJ\u202fJose, is the managing director and statutory director of Reporter Broadcasting Company, which owns the Reporter TV channel. Augustine serves as the channel\u2019s managing editor and managing director, while his brothers Roji\u202fAugustine and Josekutty\u202fAugustine hold the positions of chairman and vice\u2011chairman respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Excise officials have sought information on the whereabouts of Lilly\u202fJose and K\u202fJ\u202fJose following Augustine\u2019s arrest. The couple is reported to be residing at a house in Koliyadi near Sulthan\u202fBathery. Their continued residence in the district adds a layer of complexity to the inquiry, as authorities attempt to determine whether any control or benefit from the seized liquor could be traced to them.<\/p>\n<p>The core issues under scrutiny are whether the property was formally mutated in Lilly\u202fJose\u2019s name after the 2022 auction, who actually possessed the premises thereafter, and whether Augustine retained any control that could link him to the liquor found during the excise raid. The Excise Department\u2019s custody application emphasizes the need to establish the source of the seized alcohol, including the possibility that some of it was imported during foreign trips or obtained through other channels.<\/p>\n<p>Legal experts note that the outcome may hinge on documentation such as the SBI sale certificate, registration and mutation records, panchayat building and tax ledgers, and any evidence of actual possession after the auction. The case underscores how discrepancies between banking records and local government registers can complicate criminal investigations, especially when family ties intersect with corporate interests.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Kerala excise raid on a house in Muttil has highlighted conflicting ownership records, with an SBI sale certificate naming a new buyer while local panchayat documents still list the former owner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[299],"tags":[2238,467,2239,2241,2240],"class_list":["post-2105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-excise-department","tag-kerala","tag-property-dispute","tag-reporter-broadcasting-company","tag-sbi-auction","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}