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Lucknow, 13 June. The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) amid political controversy over alleged embezzlement of donation boxes and allegations of financial irregularities in the Shri Ram temple in Ayodhya. This investigation team will submit its report within 15 days.

Earlier, Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust itself had requested Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to form a SIT and conduct a high-level investigation. The government formed SIT on the request of the Trust. This team will submit the preliminary report to the government in seven days and the final report in 15 days. This committee includes Lucknow Divisional Commissioner IAS Vijay Vishwas Pant, IG Range IPS Kiran S and Special Secretary Finance Neel Ratan.

The Trust says that it is very important to have a completely transparent and impartial investigation into this sacred matter to the unwavering faith of crores of devotees in the country and abroad, so that all kinds of misleading rumors going on on social media can be put to an immediate end. According to the state government spokesperson, the Trust had made this request to the Chief Minister due to the rumors spreading regarding the theft of valuable money donated in the donation boxes of Ram Temple.

Former accounting in-charge made serious allegations against the trust

This entire controversy came into limelight across the country when former Chief Accounts In-charge of Ram Temple, Mahipal Singh, claimed that large-scale financial irregularities were being committed during the counting of temple offerings. He directly alleged that once in the past, due to his vigilance, he had caught red-handed the theft of cash worth about Rs 5 lakh, but after making a written complaint to the higher authorities, instead of giving justice, he was expelled from the job.

Mahipal Singh further strengthened his claims and also seriously alleged that some important CCTV footage of the temple premises has been deliberately deleted and no transparent digital record of the gold, silver and other precious jewelery offered by the devotees has been maintained.

Trust General Secretary Champat Rai denied the allegations

However, the influential General Secretary of the Trust, Champat Rai, has completely rejected all these allegations made by the former Accounts In-charge and strongly refuted them. He said that the entire process of collection of donations from devotees in Ram temple, its daily counting, safe transportation and finally depositing in the authorized bank is completely computerized and transparent.

Champat Rai said that the accounts of the temple are regularly audited with expert officers of the country’s prestigious State Bank of India and the investigation so far has not found any confirmation of any major financial embezzlement. However, as the controversy escalated, the Trust has also initiated a detailed investigation internally, which primarily included review of CCTV footage over the past months and a thorough investigation of the cash handling process.

Detention of 4 employees and alleged recovery of Rs 5 lakh also claimed

Meanwhile, claims of police detaining four employees on charges of suspicious activities and alleged recovery of Rs 5 lakh from them are also coming to the fore.

Akhilesh Yadav demanded judicial cognizance

At the same time, the politics of Uttar Pradesh has also become completely heated on this issue and Samajwadi Party National President Akhilesh Yadav, alleging that there is a big theft of about Rs 5-7 crore from the temple, has strongly demanded the Honorable Court to take immediate suo motu cognizance of this issue.

PMO also asked for detailed and point wise report from the trust

On the other hand, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Dr. Rajneesh Singh has written a special letter to the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding an investigation into this entire alleged scam by the Central Bureau of Investigation or the Enforcement Directorate. Directly after this political stir, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) also showed activeness and called for a detailed and point-wise report of the entire matter from Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.

Sant Samaj also raised questions on transparency

In this case, Mahant Kamal Nayan Das (who is the declared successor of the Trust President Mahant Nritya Gopal Das) has demanded an impartial investigation. He said that if any financial irregularities are found at any level in the offerings of the holy Ram Temple, then the strictest punitive action should be taken against the culprits without any concessions. At present, about four dozen (48) big donation boxes have been installed at different places in the huge complex of Ram Temple for the convenience of the devotees and for the offerings.