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The Uttar Pradesh government has constituted a three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the alleged scam involving offerings made at the Ram Mandir, following a request from the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir Trust.
The SIT comprises Vijay Vishwas Pant, IAS, Divisional Commissioner, Lucknow; Kiran S, IPS, IG (Range); and Neel Ratan, Special Secretary, Finance. The committee has been directed to submit its preliminary and final reports as soon as possible. Reacting to the controversy, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Friday held the BJP governments in the Centre and Uttar Pradesh responsible for the alleged misappropriation of funds worth Rs 7 crore from offerings made at the Ayodhya Ram Temple. Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav also alleged that large sums of donated funds had gone missing. He also demanded a judicial probe into the matter. The controversy stems from allegations by SP leader Pawan Pandey, former MLA from Ayodhya, who claimed that between Rs 7 crore and Rs 7.5 crore in donations had been swindled. Akhilesh, meanwhile, demanded an impartial investigation into the matter. He further alleged that the silence of the Uttar Pradesh government on the matter is suspicious, urging the judiciary to take cognisance of the situation and calling on the temple administration to make relevant CCTV footage public. However, Champat Rai, General Secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, has categorically rejected these claims. On June 8, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust member, Mahant Dinendra Das Maharaj, refuted Akhilesh Yadav's allegations that crores in temple donations were missing. Dinendra Das stressed that all transactions are properly recorded and processed transparently. As this happened, Yadav posted on X saying that crores of rupees in offerings to the temple are missing, making the situation shameful. "This is an extremely sensitive piece of news for devotees of Lord Ram across the entire world: crores of rupees in offerings to the 'Ram Mandir' have been found missing. This is an utterly shameful situation for the temple trust. No one is coming forward to offer any explanation," the SP chief said. Further, Yadav asserted that the silence of the centre is suspicious and urged the Supreme Court to take suo moto cognisance of the matter as it is "directly linked to deep faith in Lord Ram" by the entire Sanatan society. (ANI)
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