Ugyen Trinley Dorje

Shimla, Feb. 15: The Himachal Pradesh government has begun the process of attaching the land on which Gyatso monastery, the temporary home of Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorje, stands.

According to land records available with the government, the monastery has been built on 81 kanals — one kanal is one-eighth of an acre — bought fraudulently and without the state’s clearance. The land is not owned by the Karmae Garchan Trust, which runs the mutt.

“The ownership of the land is benami and will be transferred to the state government. Notices have been issued to Rajmukh Negi, Arun Dorje and Prem Singh who own the benami land on paper,” R.S. Gupta, the Kangra deputy commissioner, said.

This morning, Dharamshala tehsildar Naresh Sharma and other revenue officials stuck notices on the monastery walls stating that the process of registering the benami land in the name of the government was under way.

The development caps a chain of events that began with the seizure of about Rs 8 crore in foreign currency from the monastery premises on January 25-26.

Agencies reported last week that the state had given Dorje a clean chit in the case, but chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal denied the report a day later.

The Kangra district administration has, however, clarified that the state will not take over the Gyasto monastery immediately.

“The transfer of ownership of the Gyasto monastery land and structure would follow normal revenue procedure. The monastery property will not be attached immediately,” deputy commissioner Gupta said.

The monastery, according to land records, stands on 81 kanals of agricultural land. Earlier owned by 70 people, it is now registered in the names of Arun Dorje and Rajmukh Negi of McLeodganj and Prem Singh of Bhuntar, Kullu.

In Himachal, only residents who are agriculturists can buy agricultural land. No other Indian citizen can buy such land without the state’s permission. If illegally owned, the government can confiscate both the land and buildings standing on it.

The records suggest the land was purchased on November 15, 2002. Police are investigating how the monastery, at which the Karmapa was given refuge in January 2000, could have been built before that.

The investigations have revealed that mutation of 20 kanals was done on October 29, 2008 — vide mutation no. 769 — in the name of Prem Singh. The mutation of the remaining 61 is still pending, which hints at a land scam by Tibetan refugees, sources said.

Soon after the monastery row erupted, hundreds of Tibetan refugees approached the state government to regularise 73 benami land deals, the sources added. Since then, the state has acquired land under 40 deals. Efforts are under way to attach the remaining properties.

The refugees have also encroached on hundreds of acres of government land, the sources said. About 400 cases have come to light so far. A Tibetan refugee unit will be set up in the state intelligence department to monitor the activities of the 27,542 refugees in the state.