Investigation into the theft of donations at Badrinath temple
Dehradun: The cashier in charge of the donation counting center at Badrinath Temple, Sandesh Mehta, was transferred on Wednesday as the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Chamoli police found that Pramod Nautiyal, the accused arrested in the alleged temple donation theft case, had stolen money on at least four occasions, based on examination of CCTV footage.
Officials of the Shree Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) said that Kedar Singh Rawat, an employee attached to the Puja office, has now been given the charge.
No wrongdoing was found on Mehta’s part, but he was replaced due to “certain deficiencies” in the process of weighing donations, BKTC CEO Sohan Singh Rangar said.
The alleged theft of donations is being investigated on multiple fronts. A four-member internal committee constituted by BKTC submitted its initial report to the Chairman of the Committee. Separately, the police’s Special Investigation Committee is probing the case, while a high-level committee set up by the Uttarakhand government is conducting an independent investigation.
Badrinath station house officer Mahadev Unyal said police examined footage from old and newly installed network video recorders (NVRs) after upgrading the temple’s CCTV system.
“We examined footage covering four days for counting donations – June 22, June 25, June 29 and July 2. The accused was seen stealing money on all four occasions,” Onial said.
“On each of these four days, he (Nautiyal) was seen hiding cash several times during the sorting process. He may have committed similar acts earlier as well, but it is difficult to prove since old snapshots are erased once the storage capacity is full,” the SHO said.
Nautiyal, who was arrested from his Dehradun home on Sunday evening, was produced before a Chamoli court the next day. The court ordered his pretrial detention for 14 days, although the police requested an extension of the pretrial detention for three days.
As a personal assistant in the BKTC president’s office, Nautiyal also handled VIP protocol and supervised the donation count at Badrinath temple. According to BKTC, he joined the committee in 2003 and was organized in 2014.
The police have not yet recovered any stolen cash, gold or silver coins, except for the Shaligram stone.
“During interrogation, he did not confess to the crime and was evasive,” Onial said.
