Aspecial investigation team (SIT) of the Chamoli police found that Pramod Nautiyal, the accused arrested in the alleged Badrinath temple donation theft case, was seen stealing cash on at least four occasions in the CCTV footage examined so far, police said on Wednesday.
“We examined footage covering four donation counting days – June 22, June 25, June 29 and July 2. The accused was found committing theft on all four occasions,” Badrinath station house officer (SHO) Mahadev Uniyal said.
Uniyal said the police examined footage from both the old and the newly installed network video recorders (NVRs) after the temple’s CCTV system was upgraded and found Nautiyal stealing cash during donation counting on June 22, June 25, June 29 and July 2.
Police said 34 rounds of donation counting have been conducted at the Badrinath temple since its opening for the current pilgrimage season.
“On each of these four days, he (Nautiyal) is seen concealing cash multiple times during the counting process. He may have committed similar acts earlier as well, but it is difficult to establish because older footage gets erased once the storage capacity is full,” the SHO said.
Nautiyal, who was arrested from his residence in Dehradun on Sunday evening, was produced before a Chamoli court the following day. The court remanded him to 14 days of judicial custody, though the police had sought a three-day custodial remand.
A personal assistant in the office of the Shri Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) chairman, Nautiyal also handled VIP protocol and supervised donation counting at the Badrinath temple. According to the BKTC, he joined the committee in 2003 and was regularised in service in 2014.
The police have not yet recovered the allegedly stolen cash and gold and silver coins, except for a Shaligram stone.
“During questioning, he did not admit to the crime and evaded our questions,” Uniyal said.
He added that the police will move the sessions court in Chamoli seeking the accused’s remand for recovery of the stolen property and further interrogation.
The investigation has also widened after another individual was found behaving suspiciously during the donation counting process.
“We are investigating that person in depth,” Uniyal said.
Meanwhile, the BKTC has removed donation counting treasurer Sandesh Mehta from the post and assigned the responsibility to Kedar Singh Rawat, an employee from the temple’s puja office.
BKTC chief executive officer Sohan Singh Rangar said there was no irregularity on Mehta’s part, but he was replaced because of certain deficiencies in the donation weighing process.
The alleged donation theft is being investigated on multiple fronts. A four-member internal committee constituted by the BKTC has submitted its preliminary report to the committee chairman. Separately, a police SIT is probing the case, while a high-level committee constituted by the Uttarakhand government is conducting an independent inquiry.