“2 Crore To 18 Crore In Minutes”: Ram Temple Trust Accused Of Land Scam

Lucknow: 

Two opposition parties of today accused the Ram Mandir Trust set up by the Centre last year of pulling off an illicit land deal. The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (SP) claim the transaction took place in March. It involved two real estate dealers allegedly purchasing a property from an individual for ₹ 2 crore and selling it — minutes later — to the Trust for ₹ 18.5 crore, according to the allegation. The temple body has brushed the charge aside as frivolous.

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra is a Trust that was set up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in February 2020 to oversee and manage the construction of the temple based on a Supreme Court verdict. It was awarded around 70 acres of land in the ruling and 12 of its 15 members are nominated by the Centre.

Former Samajwadi Party MLA and Uttar Pradesh minister Pawan Pandey today held a press conference in Ayodhya alleging that the fraudulent land deal had taken place with the connivance of local BJP leaders and some Trust members.

He showed some documents that allegedly prove that a property located next to the Ram Janmabhoomi site was traded at a multi-fold markup. The documents were allegedly the stamp duty papers of both transactions and had common ‘witnesses’ — the Mayor of Ayodhya and a local who is a member of the Trust — according to Mr Pandey.

“What gold did this property throw up in a matter of minutes that its price went from ₹ 2 crores to ₹ 18 crores-plus in a matter of minutes? This means loot to the tune of ₹ 16.5 crores has taken place. There should be a CBI enquiry,” the SP leader said.

“Crores of people gave made donations to the Ram Temple Trust. They dug into their savings to donate. If this is what you do to their money, then this is an insult to the 120 crore people of the country,” Mr Pandey said.

Similar allegations were made at a separate press conference by AAP leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh.