The Hindu : New `claimant' for disputed site

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 22, 2002

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New `claimant' for disputed site

By Our Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW SEPT. 21. Shivendra Pratap Shahi, heir to the former ruling family of Deara Estate in Sultanpur district, has surfaced as a new claimant to the 67 acres of acquired land near the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site at Ayodhya, saying that the land belonged to a charitable trust created by his family in 1893.

Talking to presspersons here on Friday, Mr. Shahi said the two villages, Rano Pali and Kaitha, having a total area of 600 acres, where the disputed site exists, belonged to his family. His ancestors had donated the two villages to a trust formed by Raja Rudra Pratap Shahi, the income from which was to be spent to bear the expenses of Raj Rajeshwari Shri Sitaram temple also built by the rulers of Deara also at Ayodhya.

Mr. Shahi claimed that the land in the two villages was not covered under the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition Act and continued to be the property of the trust. Also, it could not be acquired by the Government under the law. He presented an English version of the deed of the trust, the original copy of which is in Persian, he claimed, was preserved in the records of the Registrar at Faizabad.

He said he would move the court at Faizabad tomorrow to seek measurement of the land around the disputed site and set aside the property belonging to his family trust.

The revenue records of 1893 proved the claim that the land was his ancestral property. The records of 1860 and 1864 had been sealed by the local administration at Faizabad and he would demand that these should be opened to verify his claim further, Mr. Shahi added.

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