8 Arrested In Ayodhya Ram Mandir Donation Theft; Nearly Rs. 80 Lakh Recovered

Ayodhya: Eight people were sent to jail on Friday. They are accused of stealing donations from Ram Mandir. The court ordered them held till Monday, June 29. All eight will appear in court again then. One of them, Tinnu Yadav, is the key accused. The others are Subhash Srivastava, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Avinash Shukla, Karunesh Pandey, Manish Yadav and Ramshankar Mishra.

How much money had recovered?

Police had found Rs 79,85,493 with the accused. Only Subhash Srivastava had nothing on him, though he was part of the theft. The others had different amounts. The prosecution officer said five to six of the arrested were bank employees. They worked at SBI and handled the donation counting. They drew salaries from the bank but were stealing money. Tinnu was not a bank employee and he worked as a driver. Subhash was in charge of the donation counting process.

How CCTV caught them?

The SIT checked CCTV footage from April 27 to June 5. In 39 days of footage, they found 70 instances of theft. Seventy times. Caught on camera.
But here is the real problem. The temple does not have enough CCTV coverage. There are blind spots. How much money was stolen in areas without cameras? Nobody knows.

What are the major problems found?

The SIT also found major gaps in how donations were counted and recorded. The counting documents had errors and the audit reports had discrepancies. Money went missing because the system was broken. Nobody was watching properly as the procedures were weak. Multiple people took advantage of it.

Two officials quit?

Champat Rai, the General Secretary of Ram Janmabhoomi Trust, had resigned. Anil Mishra, a trustee, had also resigned as both took moral responsibility. They quit after the FIR was filed and the scandal forced them to step down.

What are the charges?

On the directions of the Uttar Pradesh Government, the case was filed under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) including Sections 306, 316(5), 317(4), 317(5), 61 and 3(5). These include sections on criminal breach of trust and other offences. The Uttar Pradesh government directed the prosecution. Both police and the SIT are investigating. More arrests may come as the investigation is still ongoing.