A Supreme Court-appointed SIT has identified 105 distinct instances of alleged theft in the accounting and handling of donations at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Investigators reconstructed the alleged diversion using CCTV footage, witness statements, donation records, digital logs and banking documents.
The Uttar Pradesh government told the Supreme Court that a chargesheet will be filed by September 25, the date on which the 90-day period from the first arrests expires.
A Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing alleged irregularities in the accounting of donations at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya has identified 105 distinct instances of alleged theft, a Hindustan Times report said.
The findings are part of a status report submitted to the Supreme Court on September 16 and represent an increase from the 70 alleged instances recorded in the interim report of the first SIT headed by Vijay Vishwas Pant.
The latest SIT said it reconstructed the alleged diversion of donations by examining CCTV footage, witness statements, donation records and banking documents, the report said.
SIT Tracks Alleged Diversion Of Donations
Investigators analysed hundreds of hours of surveillance footage along with digital logging receipts and bank deposit records to establish how offerings were allegedly siphoned off before being transferred to bank lockers, according to the report.
The status report also details the system used to handle valuables donated by devotees, arrests made in the case and the evidence collected against the accused.
The second SIT was constituted on July 26 following directions from the Supreme Court. It comprises Lucknow zone Inspector General of Police Kiran S, Ayodhya range Deputy Inspector General Somen Barma, Ayodhya Senior Superintendent of Police Gaurav Grover and Barabanki Additional SP Ritesh Kumar Singh.
The first SIT had been constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government on June 13.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, took note of the latest status report on Monday and expressed satisfaction with the investigation.
The Supreme Court, however, declined to make the report available to the petitioners at this stage, saying it did not want to take the matter out of the sessions judge’s jurisdiction. The bench said it could issue further directions if it found that additional investigation was necessary.
Chargesheet Deadline Set For September 25
The Uttar Pradesh government, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, told the Supreme Court that the chargesheet would be filed by September 25.
The deadline is significant because the 90-day statutory period from the first arrests in the case expires that day. If the chargesheet is not filed within the stipulated period, the arrested accused could become eligible to seek default bail.
The controversy emerged on June 7 after Samajwadi Party leader Tej Narayan ‘Pawan’ Pandey alleged that between ₹5 crore and ₹7.5 crore in temple donations had been siphoned off.
The first SIT’s interim report alleged that a portion of offerings was diverted before being deposited into the temple’s designated bank account. Eight employees associated with the handling and counting of donations were arrested on June 26.
The accused — Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Ram Shankar Yadav ‘Tinnu’, Manish Yadav, Subhash Srivastava, Avinash Shukla, Rama Shankar Mishra and Karunesh Pandey — were booked under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita relating to criminal breach of trust, cheating, theft and criminal conspiracy, along with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Investigators also seized ₹79,85,493 from the eight accused, with money allegedly recovered from locations including bathrooms, haystacks and cow dung cakes.
The investigation is continuing, with the SIT’s latest findings now before the Supreme Court and the Uttar Pradesh government committed to filing the chargesheet by September 25.
