An investigation by this paper has shed light on several land transactions in the city of Ayodhya that raise grave questions of propriety and conflict of interest. By all accounts, land in the city has become a more attractive investment proposition after the Supreme Court 2019 verdict, and private buyers, many with links to the officialdom, have rushed in, in anticipation of windfall gains. The transactions reported in this paper involve members of the legislative assembly, and relatives of officials such as the divisional commissioner, sub-divisional magistrate, and revenue officials. Of course, buying property anticipating gains is smart consumer behaviour but a clear and disturbing pattern has emerged. At least four buyers are directly related to officials probing the seller for alleged irregularities in land transfer from Dalit residents. In other cases, the buyers are relatives of officials whose job is to authenticate these transactions.
At the heart of the issue is the nearly 21 bighas (about 52,000 sq m) of land that was acquired from Dalits in 1992, in what appears to be a violation of norms. According to the rules in the state, unless the transaction is approved by the district magistrate, the sale of agricultural land of Dalits to non-Dalits is not permitted. The Maharshi Ramayan Vidyapeeth Trust (MRVT), which holds the land, acquired it from the Dalit villagers through a Dalit employee of the trust, who subsequently donated the land to the trust in June 1996 through an unregistered donation deed. In 2019, when the trust began selling the land, one of the original sellers complained, raising questions on the legality of earlier transactions. Thereafter, a committee was set up to investigate the matter. But even as various officials accepted the committeeâs recommendations on taking action against the trust, relatives of officials began to purchase land from the entity under the scanner. The initial land transaction was problematic, and the subsequent set of transactions have raised even more troubling questions.
