New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday, December 22 ordered an inquiry into the reported land transactions in which government officials, bureaucrats and their relatives purchased land within a five-km radius of the Ram Temple site in Ayodhya around the time of the Supreme Court’s November 9, 2019 verdict permitting the construction of the temple, the Indian Express reported.The newspaper quoted Manoj Kumar Singh, additional chief secretary (revenue), UP as saying, “Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has taken cognisance of the newspaper report. An inquiry has been ordered on his directive. An officer of the rank of Special Secretary has been asked to conduct the probe.” Kumar also noted that the chief minister stipulated a time frame of five to seven days.On Wednesday, the newspaper published an investigative report revealing that at least 12 government officials or their kin had purchased land parcels in Ayodhya, including local MLAs, bureaucrats serving or have served in Ayodhya and revenue officials who look after land transactions. These transactions took place in the months before and after the Supreme Court’s 2019 verdict.Also read: Ayodhya: Several Government Officials Bought Land Near Ram Temple Site After SC VerdictThese elected representatives include Ayodhya Mayor Rishikesh Upadhyay; Ayodhya city MLA Ved Prakash Gupta; Gosaiganj MLA Indra Pratap Tiwari (now disqualified); then District Magistrate Anuj Jha; State Information Commissioner Harshvardhan Shahi; OBC Commission Member Balram Maurya; former Sub Divisional Magistrate Ayush Chaudhary, who is now in Kanpur; Circle Officer Arvind Chaurasia who is now in Meerut; retired IAS officer of UP cadre Umadhar Dwivedi, Kanoongo of several villages including Ganja Sudhanshu Ranjan; then Lekhpal of Ganja village Badri Upadhyay and Dinesh Ojha, Peshkar of Bhan Singh, Assistant Record Officer.In another report, the newspaper had detailed another set of transactions dating back to the 1990s involving the Maharshi Ramayan Vidyapeeth Trust (MRVT), alleging a violation in norms in purchasing the land from Dalit villagers.The Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code Rules bar acquisition of agricultural land (less than 3.5 bighas) belonging to Dalit persons by a non-Dalit unless cleared by the district magistrate. However, the MRVT bought land parcels from about a dozen villagers in 1992 by using Ronghai, an employee of the MRVT who is also from a Dalit community, as a “conduit” in the transaction, the daily reported.The three officials included in this set of transactions are M.P. Agrawal, Divisional Commissioner, Ayodhya, since November 30, 2019; Purushottam Das Gupta, who was the Chief Revenue Officer of Ayodhya between July 20, 2018 and September 10, 2021; and Deepak Kumar, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) between July 26, 2020, and March 30, 2021.The MRVT reportedly acquired 21 bighas of land from Dalit villagers for Rs 6.38 lakh; the value of which presently stands between Rs 4.25 crore and Rs 9.58 crore.Following the Indian Express report on Wednesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to allege the ruling party’s invocation of Hindutva to circumvent the law and rob the citizens “under the guise of religion”.हिंदू सत्य के रास्ते पर चलता है।हिंदुत्ववादी धर्म की आड़ में लूटता है। pic.twitter.com/Jycl211qut— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 22, 2021Leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge also sought to discuss the issue in Parliament but the upper house was adjourned sine die.(With PTI inputs)