Badrinath Temple Donation Theft Investigation
Dehradun: The treasurer incharge of Badrinath temple donation counting centre Sandish Mehta was shifted out on Wednesday as the special investigation team (SIT) of the Chamoli police found that Pramod Nautiyal, the accused arrested in the alleged temple donation theft case, had stolen cash on at least four occasions, based on examination of the CCTV footage.
Kedar Singh Rawat, an employee attached to the puja office, has now been assigned the responsibility, the Shri Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) officials said.
BKTC chief executive officer Sohan Singh Rangar said no irregularity was found on Mehta’s part, but he was replaced because of “certain deficiencies” in the donation weighing process.
The alleged donation theft is being investigated on multiple fronts. A four-member internal committee constituted by the BKTC has submitted its preliminary report to the committee chairman. Separately, a police SIT is probing the case, while a high-level committee constituted by the Uttarakhand government is conducting an independent inquiry.
Badrinath station house officer (SHO) Mahadev Uniyal said the police examined footage from both the old and the newly installed network video recorders (NVRs) after the temple’s CCTV system was upgraded.
“We examined footage covering four donation counting days - June 22, June 25, June 29 and July 2. The accused was seen stealing money on all four occasions,” Uniyal said.
{{/usCountry}}“We examined footage covering four donation counting days - June 22, June 25, June 29 and July 2. The accused was seen stealing money on all four occasions,” Uniyal said.
{{/usCountry}}“On each of these four days, he (Nautiyal) is seen concealing cash multiple times during the counting process. He may have committed similar acts earlier as well, but it is difficult to establish since older footage gets erased once the storage capacity is full,” the SHO said.
Nautiyal, who was arrested from his house in Dehradun on Sunday evening, was produced before a Chamoli court the following day. The court remanded him to 14 days of judicial custody, even though the police had sought a three-day custodial remand.
A personal assistant in the office of BKTC chairman, Nautiyal also handled VIP protocol and supervised donation counting at the Badrinath temple. According to the BKTC, he joined the committee in 2003 and was regularised in 2014.
The police have so far not recovered any stolen cash, gold and silver coins, except for a Shaligram stone.
“During questioning, he has not admitted to the crime and has been evasive,” Uniyal said.