MALACCA: Last year, a British couple who had spent millions on a bungalow in Klebang was assured by the state that a plot of land between their property and the sea would be left vacant. 

In June, however, piling works started on the site and last week, a wooden hut was put up. 

A. Rajandren, 55, said his lawyer had made several trips to the state Land Office to make enquiries but had not been able to get information on the status of the land. 

According to him, he had put up a 2m-high brick wall last month as workers on the adjacent site had full view of his property, rented to a Scottish family since August last year, hence infringing on his tenants' privacy. 

“I feel cheated,” he told a press conference held by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng here on Tuesday. 

EYESORE: Rajandren standing next to the wooden hut that was put up last week at the site adjacent to his bungalow plot in Klebang, Malacca, on Tuesday.

Rajandren and his wife Martina came here with their two children in 2002 under the Malaysia My Second Home programme and spent RM5mil on the seafront bungalow and a lease on the adjacent piece of land. 

In late 2004, two people offered him a 40-year lease  

on the adjacent plot for RM350,000, claiming that they owned the land.  

He turned down the offer, as he was already holding a lease on it. 

However, when he checked on the status of the land last year, he discovered that it had been converted from leasehold land to Malay Customary Land on Jan 15 last year. 

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam had stepped in to resolve the dispute in May then and a decision was made for the Malacca City Council to acquire the land and leave it vacant. 

Datuk Bandar Datuk Zaini Md Nor said the council did not acquire the land from the two owners as planned because they had asked for an exorbitant price of over RM500,000. 

“I do not want to waste public funds,” he said when contacted on Tuesday. 

Records in the Land Office showed that the land had changed hands in April last year for RM67, 000.