Islamists in the Matara tehsil of Kheda district, Gujarat are charged with grabbing 2000 acre land worth Rs. 400 crores, which they have allegedly occupied using forgery and violence. Around 628 cases relating to this land jihad have been uncovered since 2012 and more than 500 people have been issued legal notices demanding proof of ownership. 

According to a report by OpIndia, there are more than 250 instances where the land has been confiscated by authorities due to disputes. The state government has also taken cognizance of the matter. State’s revenue minister, Rajendra Trivedi himself visited the area and informed the media that to date, 1930 such matters have come up and the department is looking into them. Land worth Rs. 400 crores was allegedly bought using fake names of farmers. 

The minister blamed the authorities too for carelessness and warned them of appropriate action being taken against them. He also raised valid questions like why are people from a particular community only buying land in bulk in the area. What is the motive behind this? How are they getting the monetary support and who is behind this support will also be looked into, he said. Chances of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) getting involved in the situation are also high. 

The minister also said that this looks to be a case of ‘land jihad’. In the Vansar area, the name of the Pran Nath Mahadev temple was removed from records to sell the temple lands. An order was issued by the district magistrate of Kheda on 15 April 2013 regarding the same. In a similar instance in the Sanand tehsil, a Muslim person’s name was added to the will of a Hindu land owner.

Many lands in Matara have also been bought on the same lines. In Ahmedabad, the surname ‘Kamalbhai’ was changed to ‘Kamaalwala’ and all the genealogy was changed accordingly through the will process. In one such case, the papers contain the age of the son as 51 and the age of the mother as 49! There are hundreds of such openly fraudulent cases, most of these buyers are from Ahmedabad. The minister has assured that the dominance of one community through all these fraud cases will not be tolerated.