The Alappuzha municipality on Wednesday suspended four officials in connection with the missing files related to Transport Minister Thomas Chandy’s Lake Palace Resort.

The allegations levelled against the Minister is that he used official funds to illegally construct a road to his resort and also did wet filling of lake to construct the resort in the year 2000. There is also an allegation that Thomas Chandy and his son are buying and wet filling acres of excess of land of the Marthandam Lake given to farmers by the Government in the name of Water World Tourism (the parent company of Lake Palace Resort).

Chandy is also accused of violating wetlands and coastal zone regulations.

During investigations, several files with regard to the resorts went missing. District Collector T.V. Anupama ordered that the files be traced immediately. A search was conducted on Monday and the files were found in an empty cupboard.

Officials suspect that someone could have placed the files there deliberately. In this connection, four officials were suspended.