Ayodhya land deal: Rahul Gandhi says ‘betrayal in name of Lord Ram unrighteous’

Opposition parties, including Congress, SP and the Aam Aadmi Party, have alleged that the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust had purchased a plot worth Rs 2 crore in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh at an inflated price of Rs 18.5 crore.

Earlier today, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi also said that the misuse of donations by devotees is an insult to their faith.

“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,” she said in a tweet in Hindi.

The allegation that the land worth Rs 2 crore was brought at an inflated price was made by AAP’s Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh and a former minister in the Samajwadi Party government, Pawan Pandey, on Sunday.

“The piece of land in Ayodhya is registered with number 243, 244 and 246. Its value is Rs 5.80 crore. It was purchased from Kusum Pathak and Harish Pathak by Sultan Ansari and Ravi Mohan Tiwari for Rs 2 crore. The purchase had two witnesses — Anil Mishra, a member of the Ram Janmabhoomi Trust, and Rishikesh Upadhyay, who is the Mayor of Ayodhya. It was purchased at 7.10 pm. In the next five minutes, the same land was bought by Ram Janmabhoomi Trust and Champat Rai for Rs 18.5 crore from Ansari and Tiwari. Rs 17 crore was transferred through RTGS,” Sanjay Singh, AAP’s in-charge for Uttar Pradesh, had said during a press conference in Lucknow.

However, the Trust strongly contested the allegations, saying that all sale and purchase is done by proper communication and agreement, and signatures are taken on agreement papers.

“All the court fees and stamp paper purchase is done online and the amount is transferred into the bank account of the seller through online transaction,” a statement, signed by Champat Rai, general secretary of the Trust, said.

Responding to allegations, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma said that an official answer will be given by the Trust.

Hitting back at the Opposition, he said, “The official answer will be given by the Trust. I would say in one line that there are some people in the opposition who do not like anything positive in context of the Ram Janmabhoomi,” Sharma was quoted as saying by PTI.

“Sometimes they say Lord Ram was fictional, and that the Ram Setu did not exist …They do not hesitate in leaving any opportunity to defame the Ram Janmabhoomi,” he added.

He also said when all the obstructions to the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya were cleared, the opposition started an “anargal pralaap” (nonsensical hue and cry) to derail it.

(Inputs from PTI)