Ayodhya land deal: Chhattisgarh Congress demands judicial probe

RAIPUR: Amidst controversy over Ayodhya land deal following allegations of corruption, Chhattisgarh Congress on Monday called for a judicial inquiry into the land scam saying that irregularities and corruption in the money collected from the masses to construct Ram Temple was an insult to the faith of millions of people.
The ruling Congress in Chhattisgarh on Monday organized a dharna in the state capital, demanding a high-level probe into the Ayodhya land deal ‘scam’.All India Congress committee (AICC) secretary Vikas Upadhyaya, a parliamentary secretary in the Bhupesh Baghel government led the agitation.
The Samajwadi Party and the Aam Aadmi Party had alleged fraud and corruption over the purchase of a piece of land by the Trust on March 18 this year. They claimed that land purchased for Rs two crore was re-soled to Ram Mandir trust at an inflated price of Rs 18.5 crore—within minutes after the first deal.
Pointing out that people, cutting across party lines, had contributed for the construction of a grand Ram Temple at Ayodhya, Congress leaders said Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel had donated Rs 1.21 lakh in February while many other legislators have also donated for the construction Ram temple.
Earlier, general secretary of the All India Congress Committee Priyanka Gandhi had tweeted in Hindi, "Crores of people made their offerings at the feet of God out of their faith and devotion. Misuse of those donations is unrighteous and is a sin and an insult to their faith."
State Congress spokesperson Shailesh Nitin Trivedi stepped up attack upon BJP stating, "State BJP had collected around Rs 16.5 crore as part of Ram Mandir trust funds from several places and our chief minister also donated Rs 1.21 lakh for the funds. But the BJP indulged in corruption of funds collected in the name of God, betraying the trust of people in large. The BJP indulged in irregularities of land dealing on the name of Ram temple. People in BJP and RSS have been deceiving God, let alone human beings. People are shocked and hurt by such act when Lord Ram is believed to have a deep connection with Chhattisgarh."
Trivedi said, "We ask three questions from Prime Minister Narendra Modi: Is Modi Ji supporting the sinners involved in striking a 'deal with people's belief'? how could BJP leaders go to an extent to such a misdeed on the name of the Lord sworn upon for his ideologies and policies? we would like to know, how many more such funds were being collected on the name of building temples elsewhere?"
Trivedi further said that misusing the money collected for funds to construct Ram temple was a sin and insult of people's belief system.
Not only common people and chief minister but many legislators had also contributed to the Temple trust, we will not let the corruption done by the BJP go like that.
Though state BJP leaders didn't officially react to the allegations till the filing of this report, one of the BJP workers said that it wasn't a case of corruption with the funds and the clarity on the issue will be surfaced soon as the auditing of the same is being done and the details will be made available for access to the public.