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The alleged theft of devotees' donations at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya has now reached the Supreme Court, with a petition seeking a court-monitored investigation into the case.

According to the petition, the matter should be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) should be constituted to conduct an impartial probe into the allegations.

The petition is expected to be taken up on July 13.

Earlier Bench Declined Immediate Intervention

On June 29, a vacation bench of the Supreme Court declined to intervene immediately in the matter.

The court had said the petition would be listed before a regular bench after the summer vacation.

Regular court proceedings are scheduled to resume on July 13. The system-generated status of the petition indicates a possible listing on that date.

However, the cause list for July 13 has not yet been released, and it is therefore not confirmed whether the matter will be heard that day.

SIT Preliminary Report Names Main Accused

The preliminary report prepared by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the alleged donation theft identifies Avinash Shukla as the main accused.

According to investigators, the alleged 40-day theft involved around 70 instances of theft during the counting of donations received at the temple.

The report states that the alleged theft revolved around Shukla and that information obtained from him helped investigators identify five other accused and trace suspicious activities inside the temple's donation counting room.

Banking Transactions Under Scrutiny

The SIT report further states that employees engaged by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust to count donations receive a salary of slightly over Rs 15,000 per month after deductions.

However, investigators noted that the amount reflected in Shukla's banking transactions before his arrest was significantly higher than his known income, according to the preliminary findings.