Ayodhya Land case: Trust lists agreements, says deal transparent

The Trust, which was set up by the Centre for the construction and management of the Ram temple in Ayodhya following a Supreme Court verdict, in a series of tweets on Tuesday said the plot was purchased on March 18 only after the previous existing agreements made between several individuals were cancelled.

“For the same land, agreements were made between different parties at many times starting since 2011, but due to some reasons they never matured. The Trust was interested in purchasing this land but first wanted to finalise all the previous agreements so that the ownership of the land remained cleared. About nine individuals are involved in this deal for the last 10 years. Among them, three are Muslims… On receiving their consent, they all came and sat together to decide their previous agreements,” read the Trust statement.

“As and when the previous agreements got finalised, the Trust made the agreement with final owners of the land with immediate effect … It was done quickly but in a transparent manner. The firm decision of the Trust is that all the financial dealings will be through banking channels. Secondly, we have already purchased three to four plots, including temples, ashrams, and in future, we will continue to do it. It is the decision of the Trust that for each and every purchased property, a piece of land of their own choice will be provided for rehabilitation…” the Trust claimed.

On Sunday, the SP and AAP had alleged fraud and corruption over the purchase of the said land. They said the land, valued at Rs 5.80 crore, was purchased from Kusum Pathak and Harish Pathak by Sultan Ansari and Ravi Mohan Tiwari for Rs 2 crore at 7.10 pm on March 18. “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 with Rs 17 crore transferred through RTGS,” AAP’s Sanjay Singh had said, adding that the purchase had two witnesses – Anil Mishra, a member of the Ram Janmabhoomi Trust, and Rishikesh Upadhyay, who is the Mayor of Ayodhya.