‘God declared dead’ to grab land

Lucknow : In a bizarre case of land grab in Uttar Pradesh, the deity of a temple was ‘declared dead’ in the mutation documents of the land deed title of a temple in Lucknow.

The temple is said to be 100 years old, its land is spread over 7,000 sq metre and run by a trust registered in the name of Lord Krishna-Ram. It is in Kushmaura Haluvapur village in the Mohanlalganj area.

At some point in time, a man Gaya Prasad was added to the land record documents as the father of Lord Krishna-Ram.

When consolidation of land records took place in 1987, Lord Krishna-Ram was declared ‘dead’. Subsequently, the trust was transferred to Gaya Prasad as his property.

In 1991, Gaya Prasad was declared dead. The trust passed on to his brothers identified as Ramnath and Haridwar.

Twenty-five years later, the matter came to light when the temple’s original trustee named, Sushil Kumar Tripathi filed a complaint with Naib-Tehsildar in 2016.

The case travelled from the Naib-Tehsildar’s office to the district magistrate, and to the deputy chief minister’s office but without any results.

It has now emerged that multiple mutations of the land have taken place in a fraudulent manner.

Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, who recently ordered a probe into the matter by SDM Prafulla Tripathi, said that the investigation revealed that somebody had forged the documents in the name of the man, who originally registered the trust.

The forgery was done to grab temple land of around 7,300 square metres.

According to SDM Sadar Prafulla Kumar Tripathi, the investigation established that both, the temple and land, were registered in the name of Lord Krishna-Rama in the past.

Tripathi said the temple’s land was being described as barren land of the local gram sabha. The contention has been challenged at the SDM court and the case is under trial.