Ayodhya Ram Temple probe widens as SIT examines trust finances since 2020

THe three-member Special investigating team up ( sit around) is go under to spread out the scope of its probe into allegations of irregularities in Ram Temple donation collections and look at the entire financial ecosystem of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust since its formation on February 5, 2020, two state government officials said on Friday.Senior state government officials told HT that the expanded mandate effectively brings under scrutiny the complete trail of donations the trust received from within India and abroad during the four-year construction phase of the Ram temple and the period thereafter, along with the utilisation of those funds.The SIT – comprising Lucknow divisional commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, inspector general of police (Lucknow range) Kiran S and special secretary (finance) Neel Ratan – first began its probe on June 13 and submitted its interim report on June 23. It received a 15-day extension on July 1 and returned to Ayodhya for further questioning of suspects on Thursday.Also Read | Champat Rai, 2 others grilled for six hours amid Ram Temple row; more arrests likelyThe senior officials cited above said the team’s findings could determine whether the investigation is expanded to include additional individuals or agencies connected with the trust’s financial and administrative operations. “The investigation has entered its second leg. The focus is no longer confined to the accused employees but has shifted to understanding the entire financial management system that has operated since the trust came into existence,” a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.Financial details presented by the trust at a meeting in March showed it received donations worth ₹82.78 crore between April 1, 2025, and February 28, 2026. According to the trust, devotees contributed ₹54.79 crore through donation boxes and ₹18.88 crore was received through cash counters. Online donations accounted for ₹8.33 crore, and contributions received under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) stood at ₹0.78 crore.Apart from donations, the trust earned ₹138.03 crore as interest from its bank deposits during the same period. Trust officials informed the meeting that around ₹2,100 crore remained after spending on Ram Mandir construction work and was in fixed deposits with banks. Including interest earnings, the trust’s total income during the 11-month period reached ₹220.81 crore. The trust also presented expenditure details amounting to ₹364.44 crore during the period.Officials said the SIT sought extensive records from the trust relating to the receipt of donations, movement and utilisation of funds, construction expenditure, including land purchases, banking transactions, accounting systems, inventory of gold and silver offerings, procurement processes and internal financial controls maintained since 2020.In the initial phase, the investigation focused primarily on the alleged embezzlement by eight accused men – which included six people engaged in counting devotees’ offerings and paid by a Varanasi-based agency. Investigators are now examining whether the alleged theft exposed wider institutional deficiencies in financial governance, administrative oversight and internal control mechanisms. The Pran Pratishtha or consecration ceremony of the temple was held January 22, 2024.Investigators have sought detailed documentation on the entire donation management process, including collection, transportation, counting, recording, storage, reconciliation and deposit of devotees’ offerings. The inquiry also covers recruitment criteria, selection procedures, outsourcing arrangements, supervisory responsibilities and compliance with standard operating procedures governing the handling of donations, the senior official said.On Thursday, the SIT had again questioned with general secretary Champat Rai, trustee Anil Mishra and administrator Gopal Rao, and recorded the statements of trust treasurer Swami Govind Dev Giri and another trust member Dinendra Das. According to officials familiar with the probe, investigators sought clarifications on the trust’s internal financial controls, the chain of command in donation management, allocation of responsibilities among office-bearers and the implementation of safeguards governing cash handling and accounting.Investigators also examined the memorandum of understanding governing the cash management arrangement with the State Bank of India, the role of the outsourced agency engaged for cash-counting operations and the institutional safeguards put in place to prevent financial irregularities. “The questioning of senior functionaries reflects the expanded scope of the investigation. The objective is to establish not only how the system functioned but also who was responsible for supervising it and whether any institutional failures allowed the alleged misappropriation to continue undetected,” a top official.The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra was constituted on February 5, 2020, following the Supreme Court’s 2019 verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi Babri Masjid title dispute.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 Lavkush 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 cakesThe 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.