NEW DELHI, Dec 22: The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered an inquiry into the alleged irregular land deals in Ayodhya soon after the Supreme Court cleared the construction of the Ram temple in the holy town two years ago.
The UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath ordered the inquiry and sought a report within a week on a report in a section of the media that elected public representatives and relatives of state government officials bought land parcels in Ayodhya after the November 9, 2019, Supreme Court verdict clearing construction of a Ram temple.
Confirming this, Manoj Kumar Singh, Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue), Uttar Pradesh, said, the Chief Minister had sought a report with relevant documents in the next 5-7 days. “Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has taken cognisance of the newspaper report. An inquiry has been ordered on his directive. An officer of the rank of Special Secretary has been asked to conduct the probe,” Singh said.
An official said Radhey Shyam Mishra, Special Secretary, Department of Revenue, has been asked to conduct the probe. Media investigations of land records have found that buyers of land parcels in Ayodhya included local MLAs, close relatives of bureaucrats who have or are serving in Ayodhya, and local revenue officials whose job was to authenticate land transactions.
From Gosaiganj MLA Indra Pratap Tiwari, Mayor Rishikesh Upadhyay, and a member of the state OBC Commission who bought land in their own name to relatives of another MLA Ved Prakash Gupta, Divisional Commissioner MP Agrawal, Deputy Inspector General of Police Deepak Kumar, State Information Commissioner, Circle Officer of Police, a retired IAS officer — in 14 cases, records revealed that families of these officials bought land after the apex court verdict, all within a 5-km radius of the Ram temple site.
One set of these transactions raises further questions of conflict of interest given that the seller, in five cases, the Maharshi Ramayan Vidyapeeth Trust (MRVT), is under scrutiny — for alleged irregularities in purchase of land from Dalit villagers — by the very same officials whose relatives bought the land. These transactions raise critical questions of propriety and conflict of interest since at least four buyers are related to officials probing the seller – a trust founded by late Mahesh Yogi – for alleged irregularities in land transfer from Dalit residents.
At the heart of this network of transactions is Maharshi Ramayan Vidyapeeth Trust (MRVT) that had, in the early 1990s, acquired large tracts of land in the village of Barhata Manjha, less than 5 km away from the Ram temple site, and some other surrounding villages in Ayodhya. Of this land, nearly 21 bighas (about 52,000 sq m) was bought from Dalits in apparent violation of norms for just Rs 6.38 lakh, its value at the current circle rate between Rs 4.25 crore and Rs 9.58 crore.
(Manas Dasgupta)