The Ayodhya Police have carried out fresh raids as part of their investigation into the alleged misappropriation of donations at the Ram temple. A large-scale search was conducted at the home of the accused, Lafkush Mishra, and a sum of money was confiscated $20 lakhs were recovered from Avinash Shukla.
Cops are now focusing on the assets of the eight jailed suspects, after authorities uncovered a major real estate purchase by one of the prime suspects, Mishra. The plot of land he got was ₹23 lakh”>worth $23 lakh in Sahadtganj district of Ayodhya, according to an earlier HT report.
The controversy came to light on June 7 after Samajwadi Party leader Tej Narayan “Pawan” Pandey claimed that donations worth $5 Crores $Rs 7.5 crore has been withdrawn from the temple offerings. While the police are seeking to know the roles of the accused and the loopholes they used in the embezzlement, they have already been recovered $79.85 lakh in cash from seven of the eight suspects.
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The accused and the amount they embezzled
The arrested accused include Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Ram Shankar Yadav “Tino”, Manish Yadav, Subhash Srivastava, Avinash Shukla, Rama Shankar Mishra and Karunesh Pandey. According to police officers, the cash recovered from the accused so far includes:
📌about $20.40 lakh from Avinash Shukla
📌 $18.07 lakh from Karunesh Pandey
📌 $16.82 lakh from Anukalp Mishra
📌 $14.25 lakh from Lavkush Mishra
📌 $7.32 lakh from Rama Shankar Mishra
📌 $2 lakh from Manish Yadav
📌 $1 lakh from Ram Shankar Yadav “Tino”
No recovery was seen from the house of the eighth accused, Subhash Srivastava. Regarding the amount recovered from properties linked to Avinash Shukla, $12 lakhs were recovered from the Shukla room and its environs $His brother returned 8.4k to the Trust last week.
It was also found that foreign currencies worth between $900 and $1,000 were recovered from Avinash Shukla, according to an officer who requested anonymity. Among those arrested are Anukalp Mishra and Luvkush Mishra who are linked to each other, as well as trust member Anil Mishra, who resigned last week. Ram Shankar Yadav – Assistant General Secretary of the Trust Champat Rai – and Manish Yadav are linked. Ray also resigned last week.
Read also | Ram Temple donation violations: SIT gets 15-day extension as investigation expands
Six of the eight suspects work for the security agency
HT has learnt that six of the eight accused arrested were working for a security agency in Varanasi which provided manpower for the money counting operation at the Ayodhya temple.
The agency, Sainik Security Services, was established in its present form with a registered address in Varanasi and a paid-up capital of $1 lakh in December 2017, according to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs database. This security company has been appointed by the State Bank of India (SBI), Naya Ghat Branch, to count the money. Gaurav Singh, owner and director of Sainik Security Services, said the branch recommended 19 names for the money counting team.
The agency denied any role in the alleged misappropriation of funds, with the owner saying that the company had hired 22 employees and sent them to the SBI branch in Ayodhya to do housekeeping work. Gaurav said that the agency then had no role in assigning them their duties. “We were only engaged in providing housekeeping staff to the SBI branch in Ayodhya. What duties these staff ultimately performed and why they did them, is something the bank will have to explain,” the owner said, according to PTI.
(With inputs from HT’s Rohit Kumar Singh)
