Ayodhya:
A counting staff covered the CCTV camera. Another stole from the cash offerings. This is how crores in cash was allegedly siphoned from donation boxes at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Fresh details have emerged on how the counting staff dug into the temple’s hundis without being noticed and made away with a fortune that belonged to the deity.
Several new revelations have also been made in an interim report by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was formed to probe the case.
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This comes on a day when two officials, Champat Rai and Anil Mishra, resigned on moral grounds from the temple trust, and eight men arrested in the case continue to be interrogated.
The Suspicion And Modus Operandi
The temple trust officials had an inkling of a theft while reviewing the details of funds being deposited into banks, sources said. An irregularity was found when they examined the routine emptying of donation boxes. While a single donation box typically contained between Rs 6-7 lakh, a shortfall was found in the bundles of Rs 500 notes over a few weeks.
As the suspicion deepened, hidden cameras were installed in the room where cash is counted. That exposed repeated incidents of theft and the modus operandi.
Upon reviewing a week’s footage from the hidden cameras, it was found that one employee engaged in the counting process would stand in front of the CCTV camera to cover it. At the same time, an accomplice would steal cash from the bundles and conceal it in their clothing, sources added.
Read:“Guilty Won’t Be Spared”: Yogi Adityanath On Ram Temple Donation Row
But that wasn’t the only way the funds were siphoned. There was another plan.
Sources suggest the counting staff would insert extra notes into each cash bundle. While tallying, they checked the number of bundles but not how many notes each bundle had, and generated a voucher.
Later, while moving the cash to the bank, sources said the extra notes were removed from the bundles. This way, the total amount tallied with the voucher, yet money was siphoned.
Cash Hidden In Bathroom
It is alleged that after the theft, the stolen cash was initially hidden in bathrooms within the temple complex. Later, finding a suitable opportunity, the accused smuggled the cash out of the temple premises. Subsequently, the stolen money was divided among the participants at a different location.
Sources suggest this alleged racket had been operating since the temple opened its doors in 2024. Citing the SIT’s interim report, they claimed that CCTV footage has recovered 70 theft incidents between April 27 and June 5 this year.
Read:Ram Temple Trust Key Official Champat Rai Steps Down Amid Donation Row: Sources
The names of several bank officials have also surfaced during the questioning of two of the accused, Tinnu Yadav and Subhash Srivastava, sources said. The roles of other suspects are also being examined.
Sources suggest that action is likely to be taken against several government employees as well.
While reports suggest Rs 7-7.5 crore has gone missing from the temple, an official figure is still awaited. Around Rs 70 lakh in cash has so far been recovered and is being counted. Officials suggest the final recovered figure may be higher.
Job Through Recommendations
The interim SIT report has named eight accused, including six temple staff who were responsible for counting cash: Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava, and Ramshankar Yadav alias Tinnu.
Rs 10 lakh had earlier been recovered from Mishra’s house.
It has also been found that those involved in the counting process were acquaintances of various individuals and had secured their jobs through recommendations, sources said.
Read:Attendant, Ex-Bank Staff, The Man With Key: 8 Arrested In Ram Temple Donation Row
For instance, Tinnu Yadav, who served as an administrator and was the driver for Champat Rai, had managed to get his cousin, Manish Yadav, appointed to the counting team.
Similarly, Anukalp Mishra got his brother-in-law Lavkush Mishra deployed in the same team.
Negligence
The counting employees were not searched when they left the temple every day after finishing duty, accounting for negligence by officials. Emboldened by this, they started stealing from temple offerings right where the donation boxes were opened, and the cash was sorted and bundled.
The SIT also found that Avinash Shukla used to deposit the money he had stolen in his bank account, said sources.
The accused also stole jewellery left by devotees in the donation boxes, they added. The stolen items included earrings, nose rings, and bangles meant for the Ram Lalla idol, and anklets.
Masterminds
Tinnu Yadav and Subhash Srivastava are believed to have played a pivotal role in the conspiracy.
The probe has revealed that while all eight accused were spotted stealing on CCTV, Yadav and Srivastava are identified as playing the most critical roles in both hatching the conspiracy and executing it, according to sources citing the SIT report.
Srivastava had allegedly recruited others into the network and handled key responsibilities such as assigning counting duties, they said.
Key Findings Of SIT
The SIT has also found discrepancies between the number of hundis and the records during a review of internal audit reports of the temple trust over the past three years, said sources.
Their interim report has also flagged inadequate CCTV coverage and issues with the maintenance of counting records and the classification of offerings. Besides, there remains a lack of clarity regarding accountability at the supervisory level, sources said.
The report also noted that effective measures were overlooked despite identifying the issues, an unchecked counting process, and that security protocols remained merely on paper, while compliance was reduced to a mere formality.
