After the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the Badrinath Dham Temple in Uttarakhand, allegations of misappropriation of funds emerged at the Arulmigu Kuniyamman Temple in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
Eight officials and employees of a temple in Tamil Nadu were suspended on Sunday in connection with misappropriation of hundi funds, news agency PTI reported.
The suspension order was issued by the Regional Joint Commissioner of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Ramesh Kumar.
Among those detained were four members suspected of direct theft and four other supervisory officials who were punished for severe administrative negligence.
Tamil Nadu temple’s mishandling of donations
Allegations of mishandling of Hondi funds first surfaced after the temple’s scheduled counting on July 15. The irregularities prompted HR&CE’s Kumar to launch an investigation into the incident and identify those responsible for the mishandling of funds.
The four officials arrested for the theft are ticket collector A Balasubramanian (52), office assistant V Saravanan (34), cleaning employee P Pradeep Kumar (31), and temple priest S Krishnaraj (56).
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According to the police and temple authorities, the four accused separated countless hundis from the main counting area, transported this money to the back of the temple on a cart, and seized approx. $31,000 to be divided among themselves,” the PTI report said.
After their arrest on Saturday, July 25 by the Ukkadam police force, Kumar issued a suspension the next day on charges of theft.
A series of high-profile embezzlement cases
The Arulmiju Kuniyamman temple in Tamil Nadu is the latest in a series of controversial cases surrounding misappropriation of funds in temples across the country. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigation is currently underway to look into the alleged theft of cash donations at the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya.
A three-member investigation committee, headed by District Commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, completed its field investigation and recorded statements of over 70 workers associated with the temple’s donation management system. Moving beyond evidence gathering, the investigation is now looking into administrative compromises that allowed repeated theft of funds at the temple. All eight accused of embezzling donations during the counting process are under arrest.
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In a similar case, the SIT unit of Chamoli Police in Uttarakhand has sought donation records for the last three years from the Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) in connection with alleged theft of funds from Badrinath Dham in Uttarakhand. Two people have been arrested in the case so far.
Rajendra Chauhan, a BKTC temple officer, was arrested on July 17 on charges of stealing money from the counting room on three occasions before his retirement on June 30. The raid carried out by police forces on his residence in the temple led to the discovery of foreign currencies and other assets. Likewise, BKTC president’s personal assistant, Pramod Nautiyal, was arrested from his Dehradun residence shortly before due to irregularities in the temple’s donation management system.
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A four-member internal committee constituted by the BKTC submitted its preliminary report to the committee chairman along with the ongoing SIT probe and an independent investigation conducted by a high-level committee constituted by the state government.
