A day after it faced allegations of financial corruption worth several crores in the purchase of a piece of land in Ayodhya, the trust set up to build the Ram Mandir said it had carried out the deal with great alacrity and transparency.
Champat Rai, general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra, said the 1.20 hectare land in Bagh Bijesi was purchased through full “transparency”.
Issuing a clarification over the allegations, Mr. Rai said the current sellers of the land had executed contracts in their favour in 2011, 2017 and 2019.
Since the plot was “found useful” by the Trust, the concerned persons were contacted, said Mr. Rai. The final due amount was fixed at ₹1,423 per square feet, which was much less than the market value of nearby land, he said.
“After an agreement was reached over the rate, the concerned persons were required to complete their previous contracts, only then the land could be acquired by the Trust,” he said.
As soon as the deed of land was completed in favour of the concerned persons, the Trust with “great alacrity and transparency” signed the agreement and got it registered, Mr. Rai said in a detailed statement. He also said the land was purchased with the consent of major temples like Kaushalya Sadan.
Mr. Rai added that from Day 1, the trust had been in favour of making all payments directly into the accounts through banks and the same was followed in this case too.
He accused the parties who raised questions over the deals of creating a situation of “fear in the society”. A day earlier, he had called the allegations politically motivated.
Holding a separate press conferences on Sunday, former SP MLA from Ayodhya Pawan Pandey and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh had alleged that the land, valued at ₹5.8 crore was purchased and registered by two local businessmen for ₹2 crore on March 18 at around 7:10 p.m. but within 10 minutes of the transaction, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra purchased the land for an appreciated rate of ₹18.5 crore.
The two leaders further alleged that both the land agreements, which took place barely 5-10 minutes apart of each other, had common witnesses, Ayodhya Mayor Rishikesh Upadhyay and trust member Anil Mishra.
The Trust had said it is acquiring land to rehabilitate people whose temples and land were acquired for the construction of the Ram temple project.