Congress workers on Thursday held protests across Uttar Pradesh against the alleged corruption in a land deal for Ram temple in Ayodhya and submitted memorandums addressed to the President demanding a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the matter.
On the directions of party national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and led by UPCC president Ajay Kumar Lallu, district-city Congress presidents and senior party leaders and workers took part in the protests and raised slogans against the Ram temple trust, a party release issued here said.
Congressmen in all the districts staged a sit-in and submitted an eight-point memorandum addressed to the President, demanding a high-level inquiry into the matter under the supervision of the Supreme Court, it said.
The release said there was confrontation between the police and administration and the Congress workers in all the districts of the state, including Ayodhya, Mathura, Allahabad and Gorakhpur.
In more than two dozen districts, police involved in a verbal duel and a large number of Congress leaders and workers were arrested using force, Congress spokesperson Vikas Srivastava was quoted as saying in the release.
There is tremendous resentment among the people of the state regarding the “loot” done in the donation towards god, he said.
In Ghaziabad, scores of Congress workers staged a protest at the collectorate office alleging a scam in the purchase of a piece of land in Ayodhya by the Trust.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and Samajwadi Party leader Pawan Pandey had on Sunday alleged that Champat Rai, general secretary of Shriram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, purchased 1.208 hectares of land worth Rs 2 crore in Ayodhya’s Bag Bjaisi village for Rs 18.5 crore with the help of trust member Anil Mishra.
Terming it a case of money laundering, Singh and Pandey had sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate into the matter.
The Trust has strongly refuted the allegations.
In a statement, Trust general secretary Rai had said, ”Allegations of assassinating Mahatma Gandhi were also levelled against us. We do not fear allegations. I will study the allegations levelled against us and probe them”.
