The trust overseeing the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya said on Tuesday that all land purchase deals were done transparently and dismissed allegations of corruption levelled by Opposition parties.
The Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust tweeted details of all agreements of the 1.2080-hectare land in Ayodhya’s Bag Bijaisi since 2011. The body said that the land was in a “prime location” near the railway station and adjacent to a road that is likely to be widened and serve as the main approach road to the Ram temple.
The trust said that nine individuals were involved in three separate deals over the last decade and added that the trust finally bought the land on March 18 at ₹1,423 per sq ft, lower the market rate.
“All individuals were contacted and negotiated with. On receiving their consent, they all came and sat together to decide on their previous agreements,” said the trust.
“As and when the previous agreements were finalised, the trust made the agreement with final owners of the land with immediate effect without losing any time. It was done quickly but in a transparent manner,” it added.
The controversy broke out on Sunday after former Samajwadi Party MLA from Ayodhya, Tej Pratap Pandey, and AAP Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Singh, accused the trust of purchasing land worth ₹2 crore for ₹18.5 crore.
In separate press conferences, the two leaders showed documents to allege that on March 18 this year, Kusum Pathak sold her land for ₹2 crore to Sultan Ansari and Ravi Mohan Tiwari, who then sold the land to the trust for ₹18.5 crore 10 minutes later.
They also said that the circle rate (price per unit of land fixed by government ) of the plot was ₹5.79 crore. To be sure, land agreements are often struck at prices far above the circle rate. Since then, Opposition parties have demanded a judicial probe and the trust has dismissed the charges, saying the price of the land was decided between Pathak and Ansari-Tiwari in 2019 but the land was registered on March 18.
In its response on Tuesday, the Trust said nine individuals were involved in the plot’s purchase deals over the last 10 years.
On March 4, 2011, four men — Mehfooz Alam, Javed Alam, Noor Alam and Firoz Alam — signed an agreement with Kusum Pathak, her husband Harish Pathak and Mohd Irfan to sell the land for R1 crore, said the trust. The deal was valid for three years and lapsed on March 4, 2014.
Then, on November 20, 2017, the same four people registered a sale deed to Kusum Pathak and Harish Pathak for ₹2 crore. The next day, Kusum Pathak and Harish Pathak entered into an agreement to sell the land to lchchha Ram Singh, Jitendra Kumar Singh and Rakesh Kumar Singh for R 2.16 crore, said the trust.
This agreement was cancelled on September 17, 2019.
The same day, Kusum Pathak and Harish Pathak signed another agreement to sell the same plot to Ichchha Ram Singh, Vishwa Pratap Upadhyay, Manish Kumar, Subedar, Balram Yadav, Ravindra Kumar Dubey, Sultan Ansari and Rashid Hussain for ₹2 crore. The validity of the agreement was three years.
This agreement was registered to be cancelled March 18, 2021, said the Trust.
“On 18.03.2021, Kusum Pathak and Harish Pathak sold land… by sale deed to Tiwari and Ansari…The consideration amount was Rs. 2 crore,” said the trust.
The same day, Tiwari and Ansari entered into an agreement to sell this land to the trust for ₹18.50 crore. Payment of ₹17 crore was made as advance by online transaction, the trust added.
“Nyas (Trust) was interested in purchasing this land but first wanted to finalise all the previous agreements so that ownership of the land may be cleared,” said the trust.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said all members of Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust must resign till the issue related to the Ayodhya land deal and transactions are cleared.
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