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Ram temple donation row: ₹80 lakh cash haul, resignation buzz follow arrests, FIR
Eight men linked to the Ram Temple trust were arrested amid donation irregularity allegations, with nearly ₹80 lakh recovered and resignations speculated.
Allegations of irregularities in the collection of donations to the Ram Temple snowballed into a major controversy on Friday after the arrest of eight men connected to the temple management, the recovery of nearly ₹80 lakh from seven of them and a buzz about the resignation of two prominent members of the temple trust.
The developments came a day after the Uttar Pradesh Police lodged a first information report (FIR) on a complaint by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in connection with the allegations, naming an aide of the trust’s general secretary Champat Rai and seven others.
Rai resignation buzz
Speculation was rife that Rai and prominent trust member Anil Mishra resigned on Friday. While a UP government source mentioned the resignation, there was no confirmation of the same even as the Trust maintained silence on the buzz. A copy of the supposed resignation letter has not come into the public domain.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad said it has no knowledge of its vice president Champat Rai’s resignation from the Trust.
Speaking to PTI, VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal said, “The VHP doesn’t have any knowledge of the resignation.”
Neither Rai nor Nripendra Misra, chairman of the Ram temple construction committee, was available for comment.
The developments came a day after the FIR named Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu, a close aide of Rai, along with Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Luvkush Mishra, Subhash Srivastava, Rama Shankar Yadav, Manish Yadav and Karunesh Pandey. All of them were arrested on Friday morning.
Case registered
The case was registered against eight named accused and other unidentified people under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 306, 316(5), 317(4), 317(5), 61 and 3(5), relating to offences such as criminal breach of trust, cheating, theft and criminal conspiracy, along with Section 13(1)(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The SIT recommended the FIR on the basis of oral evidence, financial documents as well as electronic evidence, said officials privy to the matter.
Ayodhya prosecution officer KC Verma said all eight accused were produced before the anti-corruption court, which remanded them in judicial custody till Monday. Verma said police recovered a total of ₹79,85,893 in cash from seven of the accused. No cash recovery was made from Subhash Srivastava, he added.
Police are now expected to move court, seeking custody remand of all eight accused to question them in detail about the alleged diversion of donations, identify the money trail, confront them with documentary and electronic evidence, and recover additional cash, valuables and other incriminating material believed to be linked to the alleged embezzlement.
The controversy first surfaced on June 7 when Samajwadi Party leader Tej Narayan ‘Pawan’ Pandey alleged donations worth ₹5 crore to ₹7.5 crore were siphoned off from temple offerings.
On June 13, the state government set up the SIT on the request of the temple trust. The panel, comprising Lucknow divisional commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, Lucknow Range inspector-general Kiran S and special secretary (finance) Neel Ratan, conducted a preliminary inquiry in Ayodhya between June 15 and 20. People familiar with the investigation said the SIT scrutinised the entire donation management chain, including collection boxes, cash counting, storage, accounting procedures, access control and CCTV surveillance. The preliminary inquiry flagged prima facie irregularities in the handling of cash and valuables offered by devotees.
After the landmark 2019 Supreme Court verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute, the temple trust was set up by the Government of India to oversee the construction of the temple and was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2020, according to its website.
Commenting on the controversy, Trust member Vishwaprasanna Tirtha Swamiji said such a “grave offence” should not have occurred, and if the allegations are found to be true, those responsible must face appropriate punishment. “Being a member of the trust I cannot comment on anything now based on what others have said. On July 11 there is a trust meeting, I’m going. After knowing what the matter is, I will place things before you,” said the pontiff of the Sri Pejavara Adhokshaja Math.
