From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday urged the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the huge Ayodhya land scam in the face of top ruling BJP leadership’s silence on it.
Its spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said the Congress has been saying since day one in June 2021 that there should be a thorough probe in the land scam in the holy town of Ayodhya, but now the Ayodhya Development Authority has released a list of 40 people involved in the land scam and building of the Ram Temple.
She said prominent among those names are Ayodhya MLA Ved Prakash Gupta of the BJP, BJP mayor Rishikesh Upadhyay and many officers of the UP government whose relatives have bought land. She talked of three big points:
— People donated but those collecting money in the name of Lord Ram scammed the donations by selling land worth Rs 2 crore in Rs 18 crore;
— Ram Mandir Trust has only acquired 70 acres of land. Why are BJP leaders acquiring at low cost and then selling at steeply high prices to the Mandir trust with the cognizance, with the approval and with the signatures of the Mandir trust, namely Champat Rai, Anil Mishra and Rishikesh Upadhyay;
— Dalit land can not be gouth or sold. The issue is still court. This is being raised by the saints and the people involved with the temple and Hanuman Garhi Temple Mahant Dharmdas has made some serious allegations of fraud.
Shrinate said: “The reality is that relatives of Rishikesh Upadhyay, relatives of Ved Prakash Gupta, the MLA, relatives of multiple officials of the UP Government have been involved in this land scam and the only probe that’s happening is that at the DM level. How can the DM probe the MLA, the Ex-MLA, the Ministers in the UP Government?”
She said the 15-member Ram Tmple Trust was set up as per the Supreme Court order and since the Ayodhya Development Authority has put out names of people involved in the property scam, there is a clearcut huge conflict of interest in case of the multiple members of the Trust, a reason why the Supreme Court should take suo motu cognizance.
