Cops collect evidence from SBI officials in Ayodhya Ram Temple donation case

THe briny separate of the tell camber of bharat (SBI) in Ayodhya’s Naya Ghat became the focal point of the investigation into alleged irregularities in Ram Temple donation collections as the police spent four hours on Monday collecting evidence from bank officials.The branch houses the accounts of seven of the eight men arrested in connection with the allegations, a police officer probing the case said, as well as the main account of the temple trust. The account of eight accused is housed at the Faizabad branch of the SBI.“The Ayodhya police today visited the bank to seek account details of all eight accused in the donation-money scam. The bank has provided details of their accounts,” said branch manager Anoop Tripathi.A bank official, on the condition of anonymity, said the bank first raised concerns about possible irregularities with the temple funds three months ago but added that the warning went unheeded. The bank had informed the trust as well as the Ayodhya Police at the time, the official said.“Trust officials allegedly intervened and shielded the staff. Despite the bank’s warning, the trust took no action and the same employees continued to handle the counting work,” the bank official quoted above said.HT reached out to Ayodhya Police but it refused to comment on the matter.Two senior trust officials, Champat Rai and Anil Mishra, have already resigned. They have connections with some of the eight arrested men.The trust had assigned the responsibility of counting donation money to the SBI but a bank official said that some trust officials had put pressure on the bank to include some people in the counting team. “They were powerful, we could not refuse…They are now under the scanner for pressuring SBI to include certain people for the cash-counting work,” said a senior bank official on the condition of anonymity.The cash counting process involved at least nine members of the SBI, some employees of a Varanasi-based agency and some members of the trust, said a trust official who did not wished to be named.Investigators also pointed at possible problems within the cash counting team. The counting staff was never asked to wear dress without pockets and no government officials were ever included to supervise counting work, said the bank official.“It is also being probed at what level in the trust the bank’s recommendation was suppressed three months ago, which officials were involved, and who authorised the planting of trust employees in the agency’s outsourced team,” said a trust member who did not wish to be named.The police team also visited Canara Bank, which is opposite SBI. The trust has accounts at the Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank as well.“The team had visited the bank. But they did not find bank accounts they were looking for,” said Akansha Tewari, branch manager, Canara bank, Ayodhya.Along with bank details of the accused, the Ayodhya police are also looking into bank details of their family members.The Ayodhya police on June 26 arrested eight employees of the cash-counting staff, including Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Ram Shankar Yadav ‘Tinnu’, Manish Yadav, Subhash Srivastava, Avinash Shukla, Ram Shankar Mishra and Karunesh Pandey.Manish Yadav is related to Ram Shankar Yadav, who is an aide of Rai. Anukalp Mishra and Lavkush Mishra are related, and are associates of Anil Mishra.Police have already recovered ₹79.85 lakh in cash from seven of the eight accused during searches following their arrest.Earlier, in a statement on Sunday, SBI said it is fully cooperating with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing alleged irregularities in the handling of donations collected through the donation boxes at the Ram temple in Ayodhya.In the statement, SBI said it was providing banking services to the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust since the Pran Pratishtha ceremony in 2024. The bank said it has extended full cooperation to the SIT during the inquiry and remains committed to assisting the ongoing investigation.