Land transactions examined in at least 25 villages located in Ayodhya and nearby districts of Gonda and Basti falling in the 15-km radius of the Ram Temple and show a sharp rise of up to 30 per cent since the Supreme Court’s November 2019 verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi case, reports The Indian Express.

Land registries between November 2019 and March 2024 examined by publication show that many of these deals are linked to politicians and officials cutting across party lines and their family members or those closely associated with them.

Those named in the report as linked to the land deals include top officials such as UP Police STF chief Additional DGP Amitabh Yash, UP Home Dept Secretary Sanjeev Gupta, UP Education Dept Joint Director Arvind Kumar Pandey, Railways Deputy Chief Engineer Mahabal Prasad, Additional SP (Aligarh) Palash Bansal, SP (Amethi) Anoop Kumar Singh, UP’s former DGP Yashpal Singh and Principal Chief Personnel Officer (North Central Railway) Anurag Tripathi.

Many of these land deals have been carried out in the names of the official’s family members or jointly with them. In many cases, the land has been sold to third parties, or used for expansion of existing business establishments. In certain cases, the family members in whose names the land deals have been made are also linked politically.

Politicians also feature prominently on the list. Netas linked to the land records include Lok Sabha MP from UP’s Kaiserganj, Karan Bhushan, whose Nandini Infrastructure purchased 0.97 hectares in Maheshpur (Gonda) in January 2023 for Rs 1.15 crore. Karan, the son of former MP and Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Singh, sold 635.72 sq m for Rs 60.96 lakh in July 2023.

Arunachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein’s sons Chau Kaan Seng Mein and Aditya Mein bought 3.99 hectares for Rs 3.72 crore between September 2022 and September 2023 in Maheshpur (Gonda), 8 km from the temple, across the Sarayu river separating Ayodhya and Gonda. On April 25, 2023, they sold 0.768 hectares for Rs 98 lakh, as per the report by The Indian Express. Mein told IE that the land has been purchased for tourism development and they plan to build a hotel.

Others on the list of buyers include Haryana Yog Aayog chairman Jaydeep Arya, a former associate of Swami Ramdev. Arya has purchased 3.035 hectares along with four others – one of the buyers, Rakesh Mittal, is associated with Ramdev’s Bharat Swabhiman Trust. UP MLA Ajay Singh, Gosaiganj Nagar Panchayat chairperson Vijay Laxmi Jaiswal and Amethi District Panchayat chairperson Rajesh Agrahari are among the BJP-linked politicians on the list.

BSP ex-MLA Jitendra Kumar “Bablu Bhaiya”, BJP ex-MLA Chandra Prakash Shukla, SP ex-MLC Rakesh Rana, BSP ex-MLC Shyam Narayan Singh alias Vineet Singh are also among those named on the list.