(Update: Earlier this week, the UP government formed a three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the alleged misappropriation of donation funds at the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. This was done at the request of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. Back in February 2024, Newslaundry reported that at least 7 of the 10 largest land transactions in Ayodhya in the previous year had involved the temple trust, which paid amounts as high as 17 times the circle rate.)

Since the 2019 Ram Janmabhoomi judgment, an infrastructure push by the government and speculation about Ayodhya’s economic potential has continued to give a fillip to the town’s real estate sector. But this realty boom has conflicting realities, as reflected in the chasm between the land’s market rates and circle rates.

On one hand are hundreds of local residents, who can’t exploit Ayodhya’s real estate opportunities as much as the town’s other residents – as their land has been acquired by the government for compensation based on circle rates that have remained unchanged since 2017, unlike neighbouring districts Gonda, Basti, Barabanki and Sultanpur. 

And on the other are Ayodhya’s large property transactions, many involving the Ram temple trust. 

In fact, at least seven of the 10 biggest land transactions in Ayodhya last year had involved the temple trust, which paid amounts as high as 17 times the circle rate, Newslaundry found. All of these seven plots were located away from the Ram Mandir – the closest one about 500 metres away from the temple’s entrance.

The 10 largest deals

For a glimpse into the odd realities of Ayodhya’s real estate market, let’s begin with two deals – one involving 17 times the circle rate and another 31 times less than the circle rate, both for plots situated on two opposite ends around three kilometres away from the temple. 

In November last year, the Ram temple trust bought 7,780 square metres from Tanvi Bansal, who is from a family of jewellers from Ayodhya, near the Lucknow highway. The plot was worth Rs 1.73 crore as per circle rates, but the trust bought it for Rs 29.67 crore with Rs 2.07 crore as stamp duty. 

The stamp duty varies from state to state and is usually decided according to either the land deal or the circle rate, whichever is higher. This report mentions the largest stamp duties paid in Ayodhya last year for land transactions.

Meanwhile, in July last year, Rakesh Kumar Mittal and Jaydeep Arya, who are linked to the Patanjali group, bought 30,350 square metres of land, which was worth Rs 10.02 crore  for just Rs 32 lakh with Rs 70 lakh as stamp duty. Newslaundry sent queries about this land deal to Patanjali spokesperson SK Tijarawala but a response is yet to be received.

Also among the costliest land deals in Ayodhya is the sale of 7,320 square metres of non-agricultural land in Haibatpur in October last year, which was sold by one Gyanchandra Maurya to the Akhil Bharatiya Maheshwari Seva Sadan for Rs 11.56 crore and Rs 80.9 lakh as stamp duty – it was worth Rs 4.2 crore according to the circle rate.

The Seva Sadan, which is a network of ashrams serving pilgrims in many Indian towns, has since announced the construction of an Ayodhya chapter at a cost of Rs 100 crore.

In May last year, the Ram Temple trust bought 7,416 square metres of residential land from Ayodhya resident Gurdeyi for Rs 9.09 crore in Haibatpur, with the stamp duty at Rs 63.6 lakh – the circle rate pegged the land’s value at Rs 2.96 crore.

The sixth largest purchase was in Majha Jamthara in October last year, when 35,420 square metres of agricultural land, worth Rs 7.77 crore as per circle rates, was sold for Rs 2.1 crore with a Rs 47.1 lakh stamp duty by Mahant Narayan Singh to Jay Kishan Jakheria, another Hindu seer.

The seventh largest purchase was also by the Ram temple trust in May last year, when it bought 6,220 square metres of non-agricultural land in Haibatpur from Ayodhya resident Ram Aadhaar for Rs 7.62 crore with Rs 53.34 lakh a stamp duty – it was worth Rs 2.48 crore as per the circle rate. 

The eighth biggest deal was again by the temple trust, which bought 3,540 square metres of non-agricultural land from the Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation at the circle rate in July last year, about 500 metres from the Ram Temple’s entrance. The plot in Jalwanpur was bought for Rs 6.9 crore with Rs 48.37 lakh in stamp duty.

The trust then bought 5,480 square metres of agricultural land in Haibatpur in August last year from Ayodhya resident Shiv Pujan, paying Rs 6.7 crore and a stamp duty of Rs 47 lakh – the circle rate estimated its value at Rs 88.7 lakh. It also bought 4,080 square metres of non-agricultural land in Bag Bijaisi from one Syed Mohammad Nihaluddin in August last year, paying Rs 6.45 crore and Rs 45.16 lakh as stamp duty – the plot would cost Rs 1.95 crore as per circle rates.

Nihaluddin told Newslaundry that the plot is situated about a kilometre away from the temple. “We didn’t want to sell this land but were forced to do it due to a family dispute.”

In November last year, the trust also bought 14,730 square metres from Alok Bansal, on the same day that it purchased the land from his relative Tanvi Bansal, for Rs 55.47 crore with Rs 3.88 crore as stamp duty – the plot was worth Rs 9 crore as per the circle rate. The plots from Bansals are located around three kilometres away from the Ram Temple; and while they were used as makeshift parking lots during the pran pratishthan ceremony, it’s not clear how they will be used in future.

Newslaundry had earlier reported on the real estate rush in Ayodhya, and how real estate tycoons have been buying land parcels at prices way above the circle rate. Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan has also reportedly purchased plots in Ayodhya. So has Gautam Adani.

A senior officer at Faizabad’s stamp and registration department said, “It is believed by the people that the most expensive plot of land has been bought by Amitabh Bachchan from the Lodha Group. The first thing is that the deed has not been made, it is still a contract. Land more expensive than that has already been bought by the Ram Mandir Trust.”

Newslaundry reached out to the temple trust’s general secretary Champat Rai for comment. This report will be updated if a response is received.

‘Selling land out of fear of govt’

“Ayodhya is now a golden goose,” said Rahul Yadav, a farmer from Ayodhya whose land was acquired by the government in return for a circle rate compensation, months after a Supreme Court verdict paved the way for the Ram Temple.

Yadav is just among the many villagers in Ayodhya who couldn’t exploit the real estate opportunities the town has been throwing up. Because not everyone can avoid the circle rate in Ayodhya. Especially not those living in the nearby villages, where the Uttar Pradesh government plans to prop up a “new Ayodhya”. 

The Uttar Pradesh Housing and Development Board plans to build a greenfield township after acquiring 1,407 acres of land from farmers and compensating them as per the circle rate in Shahnevajpur Majha, Majha Barehata and Tihura Majha. 

Asked why the circle rate has not changed for Ayodhya since 2017, an officer at the district magistrate’s office claimed it may be because the government wants to acquire land at a cheaper price.

Newslaundry had earlier reported how several villagers sold land to private firms over apprehensions about the government’s low circle rate.

Durga Yadav, an Ayodhya-based journalist, had filed a petition, along with five other villagers from the district, at the Lucknow High Court seeking a higher circle rate in 2021. “Villagers from five villages, including Ganja, Janaura, Majha Barhata, Hansapur and Ajaura, filed the petition…a hearing happened after 15 days. The court asked for an answer from the state government. Since then, there has been no hearing,” said Yadav.

“The government is buying land here for peanuts. People are selling their land not out of desire but out of fear of the government. If the government increased the circle rate then people would have sold their land only to the government.”

Asked about the circle rate while he was speaking to the media before the Ram Temple’s inauguration, Ayodhya’s registrar Shanti Bhushan Chaubey refused to comment on the issue.

However, Ayodhya’s sub-divisional magistrate, in a counter-affidavit to Durga Yadav’s petition in court, had claimed that circle rates were revised in the year 2017. “Similar exercise for considering the revision of rates was undertaken by the authorities in the following years 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 but during the aforesaid period, the market rates of value of land remained equivalent to that of year 2017 and therefore there was no change in the circle rate”.

However, Newslaundry earlier reported how a BJP leader’s son had sold off land, valued at Rs 35.6 lakh according to the circle rate, for Rs 2.5 crore to the Ram temple trust.

Newslaundry reached out to district magistrate Nitish Kumar for comment. This report will be updated if a response is received.

This report was published with AI assistance.