Inside Ayodhya crackdown on ‘colonisers’ who ‘bent law’ to cash in on post-Ram-temple surge in land rates

Last August, Ayodhya Development Authority's purported ‘list of illegal colonisers’ found its way to social media. Since then, there's been a scramble for regularisation of these plots.

'Illegal plotting' bulldozed in Ayodhya's Bag Bijaisi. Several plots in the area are believed to have been sold to the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra | Shikha Salaria | ThePrint

Ayodhya: One year after a “leaked list” from the Ayodhya Development Authority (ADA) purportedly identified “illegal colonisers”, including three BJP leaders, there is a scramble to either sell off such parcels of land or get them regularised, ThePrint has found.

Last August, the ADA’s leaked list of alleged “illegal plotting” — buying of large tracts of land and selling them in parts without permission from the appropriate authorities — surfaced on social media.  

The list mentioned 40 places in the city and named several individuals, including the then mayor Rishikesh Upadhyay, sitting Ayodhya MLA Ved Prakash Gupta and former Milkipur legislator Gorakhnath Baba (ThePrint had tried to contact the three at the time for comment but received no response). 

Although the ADA maintains that it didn’t release the list, ThePrint has learnt that in the year since, the authority has bulldozed structures in at least four places mentioned — Bag Bijaisi, Tarapur Rajauli-Gaura Patti, Majha Kalan, Ranopali village — while there is some uncertainty about the action taken in Banbirpur. 

Asked about the list, ADA vice-chairman Vishal Singh told ThePrint that it was not issued by the agency, and directed all queries to ADA secretary Satyendra Singh. Last year, the former had told the media that the list was a preliminary document that had gotten “leaked”, and that an investigation was under way in the land issue.

ThePrint visited all five areas and found that occupants of such land are either trying to sell them off or are getting the mandated ADA approval.

The most notable among these areas is Bag Bijaisi, where plots of land are believed to have been sold to the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra — the trust overseeing the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. 

ADA secretary Satyendra Singh confirmed demolitions in Tarapur Rajauli-Gaura Patti, Bag Bijaisi, Banbirpur, near Saketpuri Colony in Ranopali village, and near Jaipuria School in Majha Kalan. In addition, an “illegal shopping complex was demolished in Niyawan”, he said.

“Between 1,000-1,200 notices have been issued to those who have resorted to illegal plotting and they are getting the maps for their properties approved,” he told ThePrint.

The ADA needs to approve maps, or blueprints, of a plot before any construction can be done.

The trust, meanwhile, refused to answer ThePrint’s questions on the alleged purchase. “If someone is saying something, let them say. We cannot glue someone’s mouth shut,” Anil Mishra, a member of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, said.

The ADA’s leaked list and the ensuing investigation follow a surge in land prices in Ayodhya in light of the Supreme Court’s 2019 verdict that set the stage for the construction of the Ram Temple at what is believed to be Hindu deity Ram’s birthplace. Allegations have arisen more than once about irregular land deals taking place in Ayodhya in an apparent bid to cash in on the skyrocketing prices.

Here’s a rundown of what has happened with respect to “illegal plotting” in Ayodhya in the year since the ADA’s purported list.   

Bag Bijaisi

Among the most notable parts of the city that have seen the ADA’s bulldozers over the last year is Bag Bijaisi — an area of Ayodhya that the temple trust has taken particular interest in. 

Bag Bijaisi is located near the Ayodhya railway station and is adjacent to the road that leads to the site of the new Ram temple.

Here, 63 of a total of 120 biswas of “illegally plotted” land was sold to the temple trust earlier this year and talks are currently ongoing for selling the rest, ThePrint has found. One biswa is equal to 1361.24 sq ft of land.

According to ADA officials, the land on which structures were razed was jointly owned by three people — Sultan Ansari, Ravi Mohan Tiwari, and Sonu Yadav.  

Both Ansari and Tiwari found themselves in the middle of a major row in 2021, when Opposition parties like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) claimed irregularities in the land they sold to the temple trust. That land was also in Bag Bijaisi.  

Ansari’s name also figured in ADA’s purported list last year.

At a press conference he held in June 2021, AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh claimed that on 18 March that year, Ansari and Tiwari had sold a piece of land they purchased from a couple — Kusum and Harish Pathak — to the temple trust for Rs 18.5 crore. The AAP leader had also alleged Tiwari was a relative of former Ayodhya mayor and BJP leader Rishikesh Upadhyay.

When ThePrint visited the site last month, Nanhe Ansari, Sultan’s father, admitted that his son, Tiwari and two other people whom he identified as Rajesh Mishra and Ashok Verma had together sold 63 biswas of land to the trust between July and August this year. 

Verma confirmed the sale. “We have sold it to the trust for Rs 20 lakh/biswa. The market rate was Rs 3,500 per square foot but we have sold it off very cheap,” he said.

Yadav also told ThePrint that he was in talks with the trust to sell off his two acres (over 60 biswas) of land. 

Both Yadav and Verma also admit to having sold parcels of land in the area to other buyers, who they claim now want to sell them off to the trust. “There are about 20 persons who have purchased plots here,” Yadav told ThePrint.

Asked how land could be sold without ADA’s approval of plot maps, Nanhe Ansari was evasive. Authorities, he claimed, didn’t ask for such procedures before. “They have gotten stricter now,” he said. 

Tarapur Rajauli-Gaura Patti

When bulldozers rolled into Tarapur Rajauli-Gaura Patti area last August, fear set in among its 300-odd occupants, says G.S. Baitha, a resident of the area. 

Like many in the area, Baitha is an Army veteran — a retired subedar from Military Engineering Services (MES) of the Dogra regiment — and purchased land in the area because it was at a convenient distance from the Dogra regimental centre.   

When he bought the land in 2018, he paid Rs 620/sq foot. Today, its value is Rs 1,200/sq ft. 

At the time of the demolition operation, the ADA claimed the land fell in the Saryu floodplain. But Baitha denies this.

“We approached a number of departments — including the (land) registry and disaster management — and wrote to the district magistrate and the sub-divisional magistrate, but no one called it floodplains,” he told ThePrint. 

The land has since been dropped from the agency’s list of floodplains and reclassified as “parks and open spaces”, according to Vishal Singh, Ayodhya municipal commissioner and vice-chairman of ADA. He also concedes there’s not much the ADA can do in areas where houses have already come up, even if they are on the floodplains. 

“In those places that do not fall under the floodplain area and where illegal colonies have come up, we are regularising them in cases where there’s over 80 percent colonisation,” he added.

Meanwhile, another ADA official said on the condition of anonymity that on humanitarian grounds, action was taken only against foundational structures and not against houses that were occupied.

Majha Kalan

Plots of land that were allegedly sold by Harish Pathak of Saket Goat Farming in Majha Kalan. The area was among those that saw bulldozers last August | Shikha Salaria | ThePrint

Another area that saw ADA’s bulldozers last August was Ayodhya’s Majha Kalan. According to residents, the area has seen several illegal land sales primarily involving Harish Pathak, who’s been accused of cheating several investors to the tune of Rs 50 crore in a case involving his company, Saket Goat Farming.

Pathak’s name has also cropped up in connection with the alleged 2021 Ayodhya temple trust land scam. 

According to Ram Sagar, an investor in the company and one of the original complainants against him, Pathak and his partner Pratap Narain Pandey publicised several schemes on goat rearing and offered attractive returns on land deals in Patkhapur and Ghari Ghat in UP’s Basti.  

When investors began pressuring them for returns on their investment, Pathak allegedly sold them several plots in Majha Kalan. Pathak has been on the run since 2016. 

A board near plots that Harish Pathak of the Saket Goat Farming company allegedly sold | Shikha Salaria | ThePrint

“But now, most people are running from pillar to post (for their investments),” Sagar, whose complaint led to an FIR in the case in October 2019, told ThePrint.   

Rajesh Patel, who’s also having a house constructed on a nearby plot, said several of those who had been sold the land are now clambering for ADA approvals.

It’s the same in Ranopali village in Saketpuri Colony, where Khurshid Khan has been making the rounds of the agency’s office. “Bulldozers of the ADA had razed my plotting but now I have got my map approved after paying my dues,” he said.

Soni market, Niyawan

On 24 February 2023, bulldozers tore down Soni market — a 220 sq-ft shopping complex — on the grounds that it had been illegally constructed on the curve of the 10.09-metre-wide Niyawan Chowk Road.

Prem Soni, the owner of the shopping complex in Niyawan, claimed that although he received notice of the demolition in February 2022, the ADA’s move came before the case could get a legal resolution. 

“The notice was given to one Sunny Yadav whom I don’t even know. I was called to the spot around 8.30 pm on 23 February and the building was demolished the next day at 7.30 am,” he told ThePrint, adding that he was later taken to the Ayodhya Cantt Police Station.  

In February this year, Soni was booked under sections 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 186 (voluntarily obstructing any public servant in the discharge of his public functions), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), and 504 (intentional insult to cause breach of peace) of the Indian Penal Code.

The FIR was filed on the back of a complaint from ADA secretary Satyendra Singh, who was at the demolition site on 23 February.

According to the FIR in possession with ThePrint, Soni assaulted the ADA secretary and verbally abused him on being informed of the demolition. But Soni denies the allegations, saying he’s being targeted because he refused to pay a bribe to ADA officials. “I was asked to give Rs 5 lakh for not going ahead with the demolition. I offered to pay the requisite amount for map approval but refused to pay the bribe,” he told ThePrint, adding that his mall wasn’t the only building in the area.  

On his part, ADA secretary Satyendra Singh dismissed Soni’s claims as the work of a “guilty” person. “Notice (for the demolition) was issued last year and we waited for several months. He got a stay from the local court which was vacated later. He approached the high court and even the divisional commissioner denied (him) any relief,” he said.

Meanwhile, although ADA officials claimed to have carried out their demolition drive in Banbirpur, residents said they were unaware of any such action. “We have heard about action in the Majha Kalan area which abuts the Banbirpur village but don’t know about any such action here,” Deepak Sowlani, a brick kiln owner, told ThePrint.

(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)