The Ayodhya Police have conducted fresh raids as part of their investigation into the alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram Temple. An extensive search was carried out at the residence of the accused Lavkush Mishra and a sum of ₹20 lakh was recovered from Avinash Shukla.
The cops are now focusing on the assets of the eight jailed suspects, after authorities uncovered a major real estate purchase by one of the prime suspects, Mishra. The land parcel acquired by him was ₹23 lakh">valued at ₹23 lakh in the Sahadatganj area of Ayodhya, according to an earlier HT report.
The controversy came to light on June 7 after Samajwadi Party leader Tej Narayan 'Pawan' Pandey alleged donations worth ₹5 crore to ₹7.5 crore were siphoned off from temple offerings. As the police seek to figure out the accused's roles and the loopholes they used for the embezzlement, they have already recovered recovered ₹79.85 lakh in cash from seven of the eight suspects.
The accused and how much they allegedly embezzled
{{/usCountry}}The accused and how much they allegedly embezzled
{{/usCountry}}The arrested accused include Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Ram Shankar Yadav ‘Tinnu’, Manish Yadav, Subhash Srivastava, Avinash Shukla, Rama Shankar Mishra, and Karunesh Pandey. According to police officers, the cash recoveries made from the accused so far include:
📌Around ₹20.40 lakh from Avinash Shukla
📌 ₹18.07 lakh from Karunesh Pandey
📌 ₹16.82 lakh from Anukalp Mishra
📌 ₹14.25 lakh from Lavkush Mishra
📌 ₹7.32 lakh from Rama Shankar Mishra
📌 ₹2 lakh from Manish Yadav
📌 ₹1 lakh from Ram Shankar Yadav ‘Tinnu’
No recovery was shown from the house of the eighth accused, Subhash Srivastava. For the amount recovered from properties linked to Avinash Shukla, ₹12 lakh was found from Shukla’s room and around ₹8.4 lakh was returned by his brother to the Trust last week.
Foreign currency of $900-$1000 was also shown to have been recovered from Avinash Shukla, according to an officer who requested anonymity. Among those arrested, Anukalp Mishra and Luvkush Mishra are related to each other, and also to trust member Anil Mishra, who resigned last week. Ram Shankar Yadav – an aide of trust general secretary Champat Rai – and Manish Yadav are related. Rai too resigned last week.
Also Read | Ram Temple donation irregularities: SIT gets 15-day extension as probe expands
Six of eight suspects employed by security agency
Six of the eight arrested accused were employed by a security agency in Varanasi which provided manpower for the cash-counting process at Ayodhya temple, HT has learnt.
The agency, Sainik Security Services, was incorporated in its present form with an address registered in Varanasi and a paid-up capital of ₹1 lakh in December 2017, according to the ministry of corporate affairs database. This security firm was hired by the State Bank of India (SBI), Naya Ghat Branch, for cash counting. Gaurav Singh, the owner and director of Sainik Security Services, said the branch recommended 19 names for the cash-counting team.
The agency has denied any role in the alleged siphoning of funds, with the owner saying that the firm recruited 22 personnel and sent them to the SBI's Ayodhya branch for housekeeping work. Gaurav said that the agency thereafter had no role in assigning their duties. “We were engaged only to provide housekeeping staff to the SBI branch in Ayodhya. What duties these employees eventually performed and why they performed them is for the bank to explain,” the owner said, according to PTI.
(With inputs from HT's Rohit Kumar Singh)