Congress leader KC Venugopal has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding a probe under the supervision of the Supreme Court into allegations of irregularities in donation collections at the Ram Temple. Pointing to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to look into the matter, he said its actions so far were an “eyewash” clearly designed to protect the “big fish”.
“So far, only the ‘small fish’ – drivers, employees and outside cashiers – have been arrested while the institutional support and chain of command that enabled the brazen looting has remained untouched,” Venugopal said in his letter on Thursday.
Venugopal said staff were withdrawing donations daily and CCTV footage had disappeared for 7 to 8 months, indicating orchestrated irregularities at the highest level. “Ongoing preliminary investigations have revealed a highly organized fraudulent network operating under the watchful eye of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. [which manages the temple]”.
The systemic collapse at every level shows that this plunder has been enabled by institutional support, Venugopal said. He added that complaints of theft were suppressed or ignored, and the former chief accounting officer at the fund was dismissed after his warnings of regulatory violations. “These events reveal a pattern of willful indifference towards protecting donations collected in the name of Lord Ram,” Venugopal wrote.
In a post on First for political gain, and then for financial enrichment. He accused the so-called protectors of the Hindu religion of distorting the image of God.
Venugopal noted that the government had established the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Fund in 2020 and that it must adhere to higher standards of transparency and accountability. He said that the violations shook the nation. “…devotees gave their hard-earned savings in the name of Lord Rama,” Venugopal said. He added that a scam of this magnitude is a massive betrayal of the Hindu faith and way of life.
Venugopal wrote to Modi on the day the Special Investigation Team returned to Ayodhya on Thursday and interrogated three key IMF employees – Champat Rai, Anil Mishra and Gopal Rao – for six hours. Ray resigned from his position as Secretary-General of the Fund last week. Among the eight men arrested so far is Ram Shankar Yadav, one of Rai’s aides.
