Ram Temple Donation Row All 8 Accused Sent To Judicial Custody 80 Lakh Recovered

LUCKNOW All eight persons named in an FIR over the alleged embezzlement of donations received at the Ram temple in Ayodhya have been arrested and remanded to judicial custody till Monday by a special anti-corruption court in Ayodhya, even as investigators recovered nearly ₹80 lakh in cash from seven of the accused and prepared to seek their police custody for further interrogation and additional recoveries, said officials on Friday.

The case, widely seen as the first major criminal investigation into the handling of donations at the Ram Temple, was registered on Thursday on a complaint by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust following the recommendations of a government-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT).

Among those arrested is Ramashankar Yadav alias Tinnu, considered a close aide of the trust’s general secretary Champat Rai. Police are probing his alleged role in the handling and movement of temple donations. The other accused are Anukalp Mishra, Avinash Shukla, Karunesh Pandey, Manish Yadav, Lavkush Mishra, Ramashankar Mishra and Subhash Srivastava, a retired bank employee who was responsible for supervising the counting of donations, a senior police officer said.

Ayodhya prosecution officer KC Verma said all eight accused were produced before the anti-corruption court, which remanded them to 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.

Investigators said the probe has now entered its second phase. Police are expected to move the 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 FIR was registered days after the three-member SIT submitted its preliminary report to the Uttar Pradesh government recommending criminal proceedings after finding prima facie irregularities in the handling of devotees’ offerings.

The accused have been booked under Sections 306, 316(5), 317(4), 317(5), 61 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, relating to criminal breach of trust, cheating, theft and criminal conspiracy, along with Section 13(1)(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The UP government constituted the SIT on June 13 at the request of the temple trust after allegations of irregularities were first raised by former Samajwadi Party minister Tej Narayan Pandey. 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.

Officials said further recoveries and arrests cannot be ruled out as the investigation progresses, with the custodial interrogation of the accused expected to be crucial in unravelling the alleged conspiracy.

Rohit K Singh is a Principal Correspondent. He writes on crime, police and social issues