Pramod Nautiyal, the prime accused in handling alleged donations and irregularities at the Badrinath temple in Uttarakhand, was arrested from his residence in Dehradun, Uttarakhand Police said on Monday.
Nautiyal was arrested by Chamoli police on Sunday evening and he was taken to Badrinath where he is being interrogated, PTI quoted Senior Superintendent of Police (Chamoli) Surjit Singh Panwar as saying.
Who is Pramod Nautiyal?
Nautiyal worked as personal assistant to the Chairman of Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC).
Notably, BKTC is the statutory body responsible for the management of Badrinath Temple and many other shrines in Uttarakhand.
He was suspended after a preliminary internal investigation found alleged irregularities in the handling of donations at Badrinath Dham.
A four-member inquiry committee set up by BKTC found the allegations of irregularities in donation management against Nautiyal to be prima facie true.
Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand High Court is scheduled to hear Nautiyal’s petition on Friday (July 17), challenging his suspension and the FIR registered against him.
Surveillance cameras showed him “suspiciously stealing donations.”
Earlier, Uttarakhand Police said CCTV footage showed Nautiyal “suspiciously concealing or stealing” money, gold and silver coins, shaligrams and presentation envelopes from the temple’s donation counting room.
Police said the footage shows Nautiyal repeatedly entering and exiting the donation counting room before going to his office, raising suspicions that the missing items were hidden there, news agency ANI reported.
Police also said the footage showed Nautiyal hiding or stealing packages from $500 and $100 banknotes, along with gold and silver coins, shaligram stones and offering envelopes believed to contain $10000 and $12,000 according to the report.
Badrinath Dham donation theft case
The investigation was launched after alleged irregularities came to light while counting donations made by devotees at Badrinath temple on July 2.
A preliminary investigation reportedly concluded that cash was withdrawn from the counting room without following the prescribed procedure.
Last week, the Uttarakhand government also formed a three-member committee to investigate the matter.
The committee is headed by the Garhwal district commissioner and will submit its findings and recommendations to the state government.
The case is currently being investigated by the police, the Special Investigation Team (SIT), the BKTC Administrative Investigation Committee and the High-Level Committee simultaneously.
After allegations of theft of sacrifices surfaced at Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, the Congress targeted the BJP government after similar allegations surfaced at Badrinath Dham.
