Ram Mandir Land scam: VHP claims 'Opposers tarnishing Ram', adds 'they won't go to court'

Fuming over Opposition's continued attack over the Ram Mandir alleged land scam, VHP Spokesperson Vinod Bansal on Friday, claimed that those who were levelling allegations will claim that agencies like ED, I-T and police were under 'Yogi-Modi' rule. Claiming that the Opposition will not go to court, he alleged that those who used to ask for proof of Ram while backing Babri, will now ask for proof from Ram Mandir trust. AAP and SP leaders have accused Ram Janmabhoomi Trust of buying a piece of land at inflated rates. 

VHP: Opposers won't go to court

Ram Mandir land scam

On June 13, AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and SP's ex-MLA Pawan Pandey accused Champat Rai of buying a piece of land worth Rs 2 crore at an inflated price of Rs 18.5 crore for the Ram temple premises with help from Trust's member Anil Mishra. Both the leaders alleged that Rai purchased the land, measuring 1.208 hectares and located in Bag Bjaisi village under Sadar tehsil of Ayodhya district for a price of Rs 18.50 crore from the first purchaser, who had bought it minutes earlier on March 18 this year from its original owners for a sum of Rs two crores. Terming it a case of money laundering, Singh and Pandey both sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate into the land purchase for the temple premises.

Singh explained that the land was first purchased by Sultan Ansari on March 18 this year from its original owner Kusum Pathak, wife of Harish Kumar Pathak alias Baba Hardas for a sum of Rs 2 crore. Minutes later, the same land was purchased by Trust chairperson Rai for a sum of Rs 18.50 crore from Ansari, Singh said, quoting entries of the second sale deed showing the transaction between Ansari and Rai. Congress too has lambasted the Trust demanding an SC-monitored probe into the alleged scam and lodged an FIR against Rai.

Refuting the allegations, the trust stated that the land in Ayodhya at Bag Bijaisi near the railway station would be a four-lane road approaching the Ram Mandir in the future and hence described the location of the land as 'prime'. It added that 1.2080 hectares of land were purchased for Rs 1423 per square feet - purportedly much lesser than the actual market rate in Ayodhya - and that agreements for the same land had been made multiple times since 2011 but had reportedly never matured. As per the Trust, it made a final agreement with the owners of the land with 'immediate effect' after the previous agreements were finalised and said that while it was done 'quickly', it was done in a 'transparent manner', via online banking.