Ram Temple donation probe deepens as top Trust leaders resign
The general secretary of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, Champat Rai, and its member Anil Mishra have tendered their resignation, the Trust said on Saturday, and assured that a fair inquiry will be conducted into allegations related to the Ram Temple donations. A statement from the temple Trust, issued by its treasurer Govind Dev Giri, said that the Trust has received the two resignations and will take a decision on them at its next meeting.
The Trust said that they are shocked, hurt, and deeply saddened by the recent developments and are duty-bound to ensure that a fair inquiry is conducted and the faith of devotees is restored. Eight persons named in an FIR over the alleged embezzlement of donations received at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya were arrested on Thursday night, according to police.
The alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya has snowballed into a major controversy, with an SIT probe finding lapses in the shrine’s donation management system and eight people associated with the counting of cash and valuables being arrested. Here is a look at what the investigation has found so far:
While the details of how the donations were siphoned and exactly how much are still under investigation, the special investigation team (SIT) has pointed to some major lapses in its preliminary report.
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) like deploying a security guard during a counting process, frisking of personnel while entering and leaving the counting room, and preserving CCTV footage of the donation-counting process for 180 days were violated, sources said, citing the findings of the report.
In violation of rules, Ramashankar Yadav alias Tinnu Yadav, the former driver of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust general secretary Champat Rai, held keys to several ‘hundis‘ (donation boxes), they said.
“Many ‘hundis’ were there. So cash received in those hundis whose keys were with Tinnu was swindled, apparently due to laxity in implementing the SOPs. The exact modus operandi is still being established,” they said.
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