Ram Mandir Donations Row: Ayodhya Court Reserves Order on Police Custody of 3 Accused

A court in Ayodhya on Tuesday reserved its order on an application filed by the Uttar Pradesh Police seeking custody of three accused arrested in the embezzlement of donation funds, including cash, gold and silver offerings, at the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir in Ayodhya.

The custody application pertains to Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra and Karunesh Pandey, who are among the eight persons arrested in the case registered on June 25 over the alleged misappropriation of donations made by devotees at the temple.

The FIR in the case was filed based on a written complaint by Krishna Mohan, a member of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Trust, who has now been appointed interim general secretary of the Trust after acceptance of the resignation of former general secretary Champat Rai.

On June 29, a local court in Ayodhya sent all eight accused to 14 days in judicial custody.

Today, before the Ayodhya court, the police submitted that custodial interrogation of the three accused was necessary to confront them with fresh material collected during the questioning of five accused inside the jail on July 5, where the police obtained fresh leads, following which they sought custody of these three accused.

After hearing the submissions of the prosecution and the defence, court reserved its order on the police plea.

The accused in the case include Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Rama Shankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Rama Shankar alias Tinnu.

According to the police, recoveries exceeding Rs 79 lakh have been made from the accused, except from Subhash Srivastava, who has nevertheless been alleged to be part of the conspiracy. The investigation has since focused on determining whether the theft of donations was an isolated act by temple staff or part of a larger conspiracy involving other individuals.

Reportedly, in its primary findings, the three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government has said that the accused exploited serious security lapses in the temple's donation management system. Its investigation has identified nearly 70 instances of alleged theft over a 40-day period, claiming that inadequate frisking of personnel, poor CCTV monitoring and weak supervisory mechanisms enabled the repeated removal of cash from donation boxes without detection. The investigators are also examining the role of officials responsible for overseeing the donation counting process.

Meanwhile, the probe has expanded beyond the original FIR. The SIT has been granted an additional 15 days to continue its investigation and has ordered a five-year re-audit of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust's accounts.

Investigators have also widened the scope of inquiry to scrutinise expenditure incurred by the Trust on major events over the past two years, while considering narco-analysis and polygraph examinations of some of the accused to ascertain whether additional persons were involved in the alleged embezzlement.ons following the allegations, while the Trust announced structural reforms aimed at strengthening oversight over the management of donations.

[Inputs: ANI]