Kitty resident in court battle over his own property

Mar 18, 2014 News

A Kitty resident who returned to Guyana from Canada recently discovered that the house and land where he lived from birth was given to his brother and nephew by order of the Land Court.
Seelall Salikram, who is now a pensioner, was born at Lot 69 Station Street, Kitty (Railway Line). He lived in the upper floor and for a while, his brother occupied the lower floor.

Seelall Salikram and his wife yesterday at his house

His brother, Mahadeo, known as Bodo, removed to his own house where he lived until he migrated with his family some time in the 1980s, to the United States. He never returned to the Kitty home.
Salikram told Kaieteur News yesterday that he continued to live at Station Street after his marriage. His three children were all born at the Kitty home. He converted the lower flat to two apartments, and rented them. Again, this was done in 1980. He explained that he had inherited the property from his father.
Salikram said that although he migrated to Canada in 1993 he and his wife would return to their Guyana home twice a year and keep up with the payment of property taxes and other taxes.
In Land Court documents, which this newspaper has seen, Mahadeo and his son, Dr. Robby Mahadeo, who operates a medical clinic on Liberty Avenue, Richmond Hill, claimed that the Kitty land and house belonged to them, jointly.
The problem with that claim is that they have been living in the United States since 1980, and no one in the neighbourhood has ever seen them on the Station Street property.

Seelall Salikram holds up a copy of his home’s registration

Two next-door neighbours, Altrice Cosbert , and Anita Persaud, a former tenant, denied ever knowing Mahadeo or his son as occupiers or owners of the property. They swore that only “Uncle Seelall” and his wife have been the occupiers over many years.
Since the court order, Mahadeo and his son have sold the property to an American resident, one Al Ramganase, whose address is that of Dr. Mahadeo’s clinic in Richmond Hill. Kaieteur News was told that Mahadeo and his son were in the process of passing transport to him when Salikram filed a notice of opposition in the Deeds Registry, claiming that he is a victim of a massive fraud.
On Thursday, Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire granted an injunction against the Registrar of Deeds and Mahadeo to block conveyance of the Station Street property to Al Ramganase.
In an action in the Demerara High Court filed by Attorney-at-Law, Moses Nagamootoo, Salikram claimed that he owns the property by transport. Since 1986, his rates and taxes to the municipality were paid in his name.
Salikram has done several renovations to the property and as recently as this year, he raised the concrete level of the yard to avoid flooding.
Even though, he and his wife were still living on the property, unknown to him, his brother and son filed a petition for title to the property. The Land Court granted an Order on 17th July, 2013. This order was registered in the Deeds Registry on 24th September, 2013 as a title.
Salikram has sued his brother and nephew claiming damages in excess of $10 million for fraud and deliberate, intentional and material misrepresentation to the Land Court that they have been and are continuously occupying, and have been in sole and undisturbed possession of his property.
In the court documents, Salikram is asking the High Court to declare that the Order of the Land Court was obtained by fraud and that the Title ought to be recalled and cancelled. He also wants the court to declare that the sale of his property is fraudulent and the conveyance of transport to the American resident would permanently deprive him of his property.
“I am still in shock. I can’t believe that my own brother is doing this to me,” Salikram told Kaieteur News yesterday.