Kejriwal accused PM Modi of ignoring IB alerts on the alleged donation theft
He claimed the SIT was formed to shield influential figures
The probe continues as police seek the main accused's custodial remand
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, accusing him of attempting to suppress an unfolding multi-crore financial scandal involving the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in Ayodhya.
Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal compared the Prime Minister to "Dhritarashtra", the blind king from the Mahabharata, claiming that PM Modi deliberately turned a blind eye to repeated warnings from intelligence agencies regarding alleged systemic theft within the temple trust.
"Will influential people be arrested in the donation theft case? I cannot say that the money reached Prime Minister Modi, but the sequence of events suggests that he left no stone unturned to hush up the matter. The Prime Minister set up the trust, his own people are part of it, and Champat Rai is considered one of his close associates," Kejriwal said.
The political storm comes amid a deepening legal probe. An FIR was registered on 25 June over the alleged large-scale embezzlement of public donations, and a local Ayodhya court has since remanded eight key accused to judicial custody.
Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Tinnu Yadav and Manish Yadav are among those named in the FIR. Earlier, former Samajwadi Party MLA from Ayodhya Pawan Pandey alleged that between ₹7 crore and ₹7.5 crore in donations had been misappropriated from the Ram Mandir.
While the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust said it remains committed to a fair investigation to preserve devotees' faith, its leadership has come under pressure, with General Secretary Champat Rai and trustee Anil Mishra resigning amid mounting public scrutiny, according to ANI.
Allegations of Inflated Land Purchases and Deleted Evidence
Citing public land records, the AAP chief alleged that people linked to the ruling establishment orchestrated financial irregularities through highly inflated land transactions.
"A Pathak family sold a piece of land worth ₹2 crore to a person associated with their party. Within 10 minutes, that same person sold the land to the trust for ₹18 crore. Similarly, land worth ₹9 crore was sold for ₹55 crore. In total, the trust purchased land worth ₹14 crore for ₹95 crore," Kejriwal alleged.
He questioned how the Union government could have remained unaware of documents that were already in the public domain.
"Did the Prime Minister not know about this? These are not classified documents. People are carrying these papers around, and all these documents are available in the public domain," he said.
Kejriwal further alleged that contractors and engineers working on the temple site were forced to pay internal commissions of up to 40 per cent and claimed that crucial evidence had been systematically erased.
"In 40 days, theft was reportedly captured on CCTV cameras 70 times. CCTV footage covering the last eight months was deleted. A Home Department official was also part of the trust. Even then, you claim you were unaware of it?" he asked.
'SIT Was Formed to Mislead the Public'
Kejriwal alleged that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government was created to shield influential figures rather than bring the real culprits to justice.
"The Prime Minister knows which polling booth across the country should have whose vote removed, but he was unaware of alleged theft that continued for such a long period? We have learned from sources that the Intelligence Bureau informed the Prime Minister several times, but he remained like Dhritarashtra. You kept a blindfold on, and only when the situation became untenable, when the issue gained significant traction, did you set up an SIT merely to pull the wool over people's eyes," he said.
He further questioned the legal basis for constituting the SIT.
"How can an SIT be formed without an FIR? At that point, no FIR had even been registered. An SIT simply cannot exist without an FIR. You constituted an SIT solely to deceive the public, after which eight innocent people were arrested. The people who resigned are still running the temple today. One of their senior leaders, Brij Bhushan, has said that if he speaks out, big names will be exposed. Baba Bageshwar has also said that if he speaks, his life could be in danger. This indicates that the arrest of those eight people was merely to mislead the public. In other words, the Prime Minister is protecting influential people," he claimed.
Turning his attention to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Kejriwal said, "Yogi ji calls himself the 'Bulldozer Man'. Then why has no action been taken in this case? Champat Rai is being protected because they fear that if he speaks, the names of powerful people will come out."
Meanwhile, the UP Police's application seeking the custodial remand of the primary accused, Avinash Shukla, is scheduled to be heard in court on Thursday, as the SIT works through a freshly granted 15-day extension to expand its investigation, as per media reports.
According to officials, the case has been registered under multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including Sections 306, 316(5), 317(4), 317(5), 61 and 3(5), on the directions of the Uttar Pradesh government.
