Asaram Trust to move SC on land-grab case

Surat: The Asaram Bapu Trust has a sprawling ashram in Surat, on the banks of River Tapi. It is one of the 250 Asaram Bapu ashrams in India, but it stands on land owned by a man called Anil Vyas.

"They hit the man who was ploughing the field and immediately set up a temporary fence. When we went there to remove the fencing, they attacked and forced us out of the land," claims Vyas.

In 1995 the Gujarat government acquired 84,000 square metres of land in Surat for public use, including a 34,000 sq mt plot owned by Anil Vyas. Two years later, the Asaram Trust occupied the plot, an encroachment that the state government regularised in 1999.

Anil Vyas claims he went to the Gujarat High Court despite pressure from the state's revenue department.

"Pressure was being put on us by the Revenue department. Aatmaram Parmar was the revenue minister then and he had given it in writing that the land has been given to Asaram Bapu's Ashram. But by then we had already filed a case in the High Court. Even the talati records reflected my father's name, so we were saved. Otherwise the ashram is capable of even buying off the talati," claims Vyas.

In 2006 Vyas got some relief when the Gujarat High Court declared him the owner of the land and ordered the Ashram Trust to vacate it. The court ruled that the Gujarat government was wrong in regularising the Ashram's encroachment. It also pulled up the then Revenue Minister Atmaram Patel.

The Ashram says it will appeal the High Court's decision.

PRO Asaram Bapu Ashram Motera, Uday Sanghani says, "Up to now we have not received the certified copy of the judgement. After receiving it, our learned advocates will study it and if they find any law point then they will go to the Supreme Court and appeal."

(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)

#special investigation #Asaram bapu #ashram #trust #land grabbing cases #Gujarat #Surat #CNN-IBN Investigations