ASpecial Investigation Team set up by the Uttar Pradesh government has found serious lapses in the way donations for the Ram Temple were handled.
However, the probe did not find evidence that former Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust general secretary Champat Rai or former trust member Anil Mishra personally misused the money, officials familiar with the report said on Tuesday.
The three member SIT submitted its final report to the Uttar Pradesh government and the temple trust on Monday evening. The team was formed on June 13 and had earlier submitted an interim report on July 20. The case is still being investigated, as a separate SIT set up by the Supreme Court on July 20 is continuing its probe.
The state SIT has raised questions about the way the temple trust managed its finances. According to the report, the trust did not have enough checks in place to properly track the donations it received. It also lacked a professional system for handling and accounting for the large amounts of money coming in.
The report also questioned the role of the State Bank of India, where the trust maintained its main account. The SIT found gaps in the way cash and cheques collected from devotees were verified and matched with the amounts eventually deposited into the bank accounts.
At the same time, the SIT found no evidence that Champat Rai or Anil Mishra had personally taken or misused the money. Both had resigned from their positions on June 25 as the controversy grew and Opposition parties stepped up their criticism.
Instead, the investigation identified Ram Shankar Yadav, also known as Tinnu Yadav, as the alleged mastermind behind the diversion of funds. Yadav had earlier worked as an aide and driver for Rai. He is one of eight people arrested in connection with the case.
Investigators followed the money through bank accounts, property transactions and investments to understand where the allegedly diverted donations went. People familiar with the investigation said the money was allegedly moved through different accounts and entities before being used to buy land and property and invest in private businesses in Ayodhya and nearby areas.
According to the report, Yadav allegedly used his contacts with people involved in collecting donations to get access to cash and cheques before they reached the bank accounts meant for the temple trust.
The SIT also pointed to several basic problems within the trust’s system. There was no dedicated finance and audit team, no clear procedure for people collecting donations and no proper system to regularly match donation receipts with the money deposited in the bank.
Investigators also found that some of the alleged diversion happened during a period when donations increased significantly following the temple’s consecration ceremony. Some of the money was allegedly used to purchase agricultural land and commercial plots, apart from other investments.
The controversy first came to light on June 7, when Samajwadi Party leader Tej Narayan “Pawan” Pandey alleged that between Rs 5 crore and Rs 7.5 crore in temple donations had been siphoned off. The Uttar Pradesh government formed the SIT soon after.
In its interim report, the team said some donations had allegedly been diverted before they were deposited into the temple trust’s designated bank account. Eight people involved in collecting and counting donations were arrested on June 26.
The arrested people are Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Ram Shankar Yadav “Tinnu”, Manish Yadav, Subhash Srivastava, Avinash Shukla, Rama Shankar Mishra and Karunesh Pandey. They have been booked under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Police later recovered Rs 79,85,493 from the eight accused. The cash was reportedly found hidden in places including bathrooms, haystacks and cow dung cakes.
The SIT has also questioned SBI over how the donations were handled. The trust’s main account is at the bank’s Nayaghat branch. Thousands of envelopes containing cash and cheques were sent to designated bank branches, but the investigation found that bank officials did not properly follow the required verification and reconciliation procedures.
The SIT has suggested that SBI’s senior management look into the matter and put stronger procedures in place for handling large public donation drives in the future.
The report has also recommended that the temple trust bring in professional auditors, improve its accounting system and create a separate team to handle finance and compliance.
The investigation said the trust had not put a strong enough system in place to manage donations after the foundation stone for the Ram Temple was laid in 2020. Although SBI was given the responsibility of counting and verifying cash donations, the bank’s staff allegedly failed to provide adequate supervision.
The state government’s SIT comprised Lucknow divisional commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, Lucknow range inspector general of police Kiran S and Finance Department special secretary Neel Ratan.
The separate SIT formed by the Supreme Court is headed by Kiran S and includes DIG Ayodhya Somen Barma and Ayodhya SSP Gaurav Grover.