Civil suit filed against Champat Rai over Fakire Ram temple purchase

A civil suit has been filed against the Ram Temple Trust secretary Champat Rai in a Faizabad district court by Kashi seer, Shankaracharya Avi Mukteshwaranand and Shiv Sena leader Santosh Dubey, seeking scrapping of the sale deed of 30,830 sq ft of the 350-year-old Fakire Ram Mandir, adjacent to the Ram Janmabhoomi site.

The land in question was bought by the Ram Temple Trust for Rs 3.71 crore on March 27, a day after mutation was ordered in favour of Mahant Raghuvar Sharan by sub-district magistrate, Sadar tehsil.

Faizabad civil judge, senior division, Sanjeev Tripathi, on Thursday, issued notices to Champat Rai, Mahant Raghuvar Sharan, who sold the temple premises to the Trust, priest Kripa Shankar Das and patron Ram Kishore Singh.

The court summoned all parties, including Champat Rai, the Kashi seer and Santosh Dubey, formerly a Babri demolition accused, on August 6.

The Fakire Ram temple is likely to be demolished in keeping with the expansion plan of the Ram Janambhoomi complex.

Tarunjeet Varma, the counsel for Dubey and Kashi seer, have sought continuance of rituals and a stay on any move to raze the temple.


Varma told reporters, "We have raised objections before court that no one has the right to sell off a temple as it is in the ownership of the deity till the existence of the universe and nobody can sell the temple's property or donate it."

It was sold to Ram Temple Trust on March 27 by Mahant Raghuvar Sharan, on consent of the priest and its patron.




Varma has also demanded cancellation of sale deed and the mutation ordered in favour of Mahant Raghuvar Sharan.

"We also pleaded for appointment of a receiver for Ram Fakire temple as sale and purchase of this temple is illegal due to a pending litigation over the mahant title," he said.

The 300-year-old Fakire Ram temple campus with 50 rooms and a vast area on the north-eastern flank of Ram Janmabhoomi site was the same shrine where the idol of Ram Lalla was hastily shifted when the Babri mosque domes were being demolished on December 6, 1992.

Its mythological importance comes from the fact that Lord Ram is believed to have stayed here for a night before proceeding on his 14-year exile.-IANS