The Ayodhya Police on Wednesday filed an application in the court of Additional District Magistrate (Anti-Corruption) Rajat Varma, seeking a two-day extension in police custody of Avinash Shukla, from whose house the largest amount of money was recovered in connection with the Ram temple donation controversy.
These developments came a day after Ashutosh Tiwari, Ayodhya circle officer and investigating officer in the case, interrogated Shukla in Ayodhya jail. Shukla named some trust officials, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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The eight men arrested so far include Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Ram Shankar “Tino” Yadav, Manish Yadav, Subhash Srivastava, Avinash Shukla, Rama Shankar Mishra and Karunesh Pandey. Anukalp Mishra and Luvkush Mishra are linked to each other, as well as to trust member Anil Mishra, who resigned last week along with trust general secretary Champat Rai. Ram Shankar Yadav – Rai’s assistant – and Manish Yadav are linked.
Separately, police carried out fresh raids at the residences of three accused – Avinash Shukla, Lokush Mishra and Karunesh Pandey – and sought more details from Rai about the staff at the temple.
Irregularities in fundraising at Ram Temple
Last week, the police recovered $79,85,493 from eight men arrested in connection with alleged irregularities in donation collections at Ram Temple. Highest amount, around $20.40 lakh were found in properties linked to Avinash Shukla, a police officer who did not want to reveal his name said. $12 lakhs were recovered from the Shukla room and its environs $His brother returned 8.4k to the Trust last week.
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It was also found that foreign currencies worth between $900 and $1,000 were recovered from Avinash Shukla, according to the officer cited above.
Other refunds included $18.07 lakh from Karunesh Pandey, $16.82 lakh from Anukalp Mishra, $14.25 lakh from Lavkush Mishra, $1 lakh from Ram Shankar Yadav “Tino”, $7.32 lakh from Rama Shankar Mishra and $2 lakh from Manish Yadav, according to police officers. No recovery was found from Subhash Srivastava’s house.
Apart from the eight arrested men, the police also sought details of the State Bank of India employees assigned to supervise the money counting process at the Ram temple. In particular, a senior police officer familiar with the matter said that two SBI grade-three employees who regularly supervised the money-counting work are on the radar of the investigation team.
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This officer said that both employees were present while the money was counted in front of them and deposited in the bank.
He added, “The embezzlement of this huge amount of donated funds could not have occurred without their knowledge.”
According to a senior police official who requested anonymity, the investigation team will also question employees of Varanasi-based Sainik Security Services, the agency that provided additional manpower to the bank.
HT had reported on Wednesday that six of the eight arrested men were on the payroll of the Varanasi-based company.
All the eight arrested accused, including Avinash Shukla, are currently in Ayodhya jail. On Wednesday, the district judge called Shukla via video and asked him if he had a lawyer to represent him.
Since the Faizabad Bar Association decided not to represent any accused, Shukla did not have a lawyer.
The judge informed the provincial Legal Services Authority that the police remand hearing will be held on Thursday via video conferencing.
“Details of all the eight accused currently in jail, SBI employees deployed at Ram Mandir and all others who are in any way connected with the job of money counting at Ram Mandir are being collected,” the senior police officer said.
“The (Aadhaar and PAN) details of all the eight accused and the SBI employees who are on the radar have been sent to various departments, including development, income tax and revenue authorities, to extract information about their financial status,” the senior officer added.
The controversy first surfaced on June 7 when Samajwadi Party leader Tej Narayan “Pawan” Pandey claimed the donations were worth… $5 Crores $Rs 7.5 crore has been withdrawn from the temple offerings.
On June 13, the state government formed a special investigation team at the request of the Temple Trust. The committee – comprising Lucknow District Commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, Lucknow District Inspector General Kiran S and Special Secretary (Finance) Neil Ratan – conducted a preliminary investigation in Ayodhya from June 15 to 20 and observed prima facie irregularities in the handling of cash and valuables offered by devotees.
According to investigators, the investigation prima facie revealed a systematic transfer of money during the addition and counting process. The court claimed that a portion of the offerings were withdrawn before being deposited in the temple’s designated bank account, leading to the arrest of eight employees associated with handling and counting donations on June 26.
Last week, an FIR was registered against eight named accused and other unidentified persons under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 306, 316 (5), 317 (4), 317 (5), 61 and 3 (5), relating to offenses like criminal breach of trust, cheating, theft and criminal conspiracy, along with Section 13 (1) (a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
