Father of Ayodhya DM also bought land 1 km from temple

Records investigated by The Indian Express show that Jha is also one of the officers – there are at least 15 in all — whose relatives bought land in Ayodhya after the Supreme Court verdict cleared the temple.

Even as that case is in court, relatives of at least three officials probing the trust bought land near the temple from MRVT, as reported by The Indian Express Wednesday.

This August, Anuj Jha, then District Magistrate of Ayodhya, referred to the revenue court, a case based on a complaint by a Dalit resident that his land was among 21 bighas illegally bought by the Maharishi Ramayan Vidyapeeth Trust. Even as that case is in court, relatives of at least three officials probing the trust bought land near the temple from MRVT, as reported by The Indian Express Wednesday.

Records investigated by The Indian Express show that Jha is also one of the officers – there are at least 15 in all — whose relatives bought land in Ayodhya after the Supreme Court verdict in November 2019 cleared the temple.

Read | UP government orders probe into Ayodhya land deals near temple, seeks report in a week

Records show that on May 28, 2020, a plot measuring 320.631 sq m in Mughalpura in Ayodhya, barely 1 km from the Ram temple site, was registered in the name of Badri Jha, father of Anuj Jha, a UP IAS officer. The cost: Rs 23.40 lakh.

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Anuj Jha was DM of Ayodhya from February 21, 2019 until October 23, 2021. He is now Director, Panchayati Raj in the state government and is based in Lucknow.

When contacted, Anuj Jha told The Indian Express: “Ayodhya is a religious place and my father is an elderly person. If he wants to live here in his last years, what is wrong in it? Can’t he buy any land here? There is nothing wrong in it.”

Records show that Badri Jha bought the “residential (non-agriculture)” land from one Mansharam Singh of Tulsinagar, Ayodhya. The address of Badri Jha mentioned in the registry is his village in Madhubani, Bihar.

Shyamlal Yadav

Shyamlal Yadav is one of the pioneers of the effective use of RTI for investigative reporting. He is a member of the Investigative Team. His reporting on polluted rivers, foreign travel of public servants, MPs appointing relatives as assistants, fake journals, LIC’s lapsed policies, Honorary doctorates conferred to politicians and officials, Bank officials putting their own money into Jan Dhan accounts and more has made a huge impact. He is member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). He has been part of global investigations like Paradise Papers, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, Uber Files and Hidden Treasures. After his investigation in March 2023 the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York returned 16 antiquities to India. Besides investigative work, he keeps writing on social and political issues. ... Read More

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