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Badrinath Dham temple committee's suspended employee arrested in donation 'theft' case
He was suspended after a preliminary internal enquiry found alleged irregularities in the handling of donations at Badrinath Dham.
Pramod Nautiyal, the key accused in the alleged donation handling irregularities at the Badrinath temple in Uttarakhand, was arrested from his residence in Dehradun, Uttarakhand Police said on Monday.
Nautiyal was arrested by Chamoli Police on Sunday night and taken to Badrinath, where he is being questioned, senior superintendent of police (Chamoli) Surjit Singh Panwar was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Who is Pramod Nautiyal?
Nautiyal worked as the personal assistant to the chairman of the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC).
Notably, the BKTC is the statutory body responsible for managing the Badrinath temple and several other shrines in Uttarakhand.
He was suspended after a preliminary internal enquiry found alleged irregularities in the handling of donations at Badrinath Dham.
A four-member inquiry committee set up by the BKTC found the allegations of irregularities in donation management against Nautiyal to be prima facie true.
Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand high court is scheduled to hear a petition filed by Nautiyal on Friday (July 17), challenging both his suspension and the FIR registered against him.
CCTV showed him ‘suspiciously stealing’ donations
Earlier, Uttarakhand Police said CCTV footage allegedly showed Nautiyal "suspiciously hiding or stealing" cash, gold and silver coins, shaligram stones and offering envelopes from the temple's donation counting room.
The footage, police said, allegedly showed Nautiyal repeatedly entering and leaving the donation counting room before going to his office, raising suspicion that the missing items had been concealed there, news agency ANI reported.
Police also said that the footage showed Nautiyal hiding or stealing bundles of ₹500 and ₹100 notes, along with gold and silver coins, shaligram stones and offering envelopes that were believed to contain between ₹10,000 and ₹12,000, as per the report.
Badrinath Dham donation 'theft' case
The investigation began after alleged irregularities surfaced during the counting of donations offered by devotees at the Badrinath temple on July 2.
A preliminary enquiry reportedly found that cash had been removed from the counting room without following the prescribed procedure.
Last week, the Uttarakhand government also formed a three-member committee to investigate the matter.
The committee is headed by the Garhwal division commissioner and will submit its findings and recommendations to the state government.
The case is currently being investigated by the police, the Special Investigation Team (SIT), the BKTC's departmental enquiry committee and the high-level committee at the same time.
After allegations of theft of offerings at the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya surfaced, the Congress party targeted the BJP government after similar allegations surfaced at Badrinath Dham.
