UP Police to seek custody of Ram Temple donation case accused, probe money trail

The police will ask the additional district judge (anti-corruption) Rajat Varma to award police custody of the two accused men, the officials cited above said.

Lucknow : The Uttar Pradesh Police is set to seek custody of two men accused in the Ram Temple donation controversy, the brother-in-law duo of Lavkush Mishra and Anukalp Mishra, as investigators seek to unearth the mechanism of the alleged theft and whether the cash was used to acquire assets, senior officials privy to the probe said on Saturday.

A view of a barricade installed at the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi premises, in Ayodhya on Friday. (ANI)

The police will ask the additional district judge (anti-corruption) Rajat Varma to award police custody of the two accused men, the officials cited above said. Last week, state police questioned another accused, Avinash Shukla, after receiving his police custody for a day.

The police will look to verify disclosures made by Avinash Shukla, who was taken to multiple locations in Ayodhya on Friday, including a hotel where cash was allegedly distributed among the accused, the officials added. Shukla was also taken to his native Pratapgarh district for searches at locations he identified.

The eight men arrested so far include Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Ram Shankar Yadav ‘Tinnu’, Manish Yadav, Subhash Srivastava, Avinash Shukla, Rama Shankar Mishra, and Karunesh Pandey. Anukalp Mishra and Luvkush Mishra are related to each other, and also to trust member Anil Mishra, who resigned last week along with trust general secretary Champat Rai. Ram Shankar Yadav – an aide of Rai – and Manish Yadav are related. Last week, the police seized ₹79,85,493 from the eight arrested men, recovering money from bathrooms, haystacks and cow dung cakes

Earlier searches at Shukla’s rented accommodation in Ayodhya yielded around ₹20 lakh in cash, 1,100 US dollars, gold and silver ornaments and a donation box marked “Ram Rajya Kosh,” recoveries that substantially widened the scope of the investigation. Police also recovered ₹16.82 lakh from Anukalp and ₹14.25 lakh from Lavkush during raids last week.

Police officials said Shukla disclosed information regarding concealed cash and valuables, prompting investigators to conduct recovery operations and verify his claims on the ground.

Officials said Shukla’s statements now need independent corroboration through the custodial interrogation of the remaining accused, particularly Lavkush and Anukalp, who investigators suspect may possess crucial information about the alleged movement, concealment and disposal of devotees’ donations.

Investigators expect to confront the duo with documentary evidence, digital records and Shukla’s disclosures to establish whether their accounts are consistent or contradictory. Police are also likely to question them about the distribution of the allegedly misappropriated money, each accused’s role, and whether any other individuals were involved in the alleged conspiracy.

The controversy first surfaced on June 7 when Samajwadi Party leader Tej Narayan ‘Pawan’ Pandey alleged that donations worth ₹5 crore to ₹7.5 crore were siphoned off from temple offerings.

On June 13, the state government set up an SIT. According to investigators, the probe prima facie revealed a systematic diversion of cash during the collection and counting process. The SIT alleged that a portion of the offerings was siphoned off before being deposited into the temple’s designated bank account, leading to the arrest of eight employees associated with handling and counting donations on June 26.

Last month, a first information report 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.