A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Chamoli Police found that Pramod Nautiyal, the accused arrested in the Badrinath temple donation theft case, was seen stealing money on at least four occasions in the CCTV footage examined so far, police said on Wednesday.
“We have examined footage covering four days for counting donations – June 22, June 25, June 29 and July 2. The accused was found committing theft on all the four occasions,” Badrinath station house officer Mahadev Unyal said.
Police examined footage of old and newly installed network video recorders (NVRs) after upgrading the temple’s CCTV system and found Nautiyal stealing money while counting donations on June 22, June 25, June 29 and July 2, Uniyal said.
The police said that 34 rounds have been conducted to count donations at the Badrinath Temple since its opening for the current pilgrimage season.
“On each of these four days, he (Nautiyal) was seen hiding money several times during the sorting process. He may have committed similar acts earlier as well, but it is difficult to prove because the old footage is erased once the storage capacity is full,” the SHO said.
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Nautiyal, who was arrested from his residence in Dehradun 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 office of the Chairman of the Shri Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC), Nautiyal also handled VIP protocol and supervised the census of donations at the Badrinath Temple. According to BKTC, he joined the committee in 2003 and was inducted into service in 2014.
The police are yet to recover the allegedly stolen cash and gold and silver coins, except for the Shaligram stone.
“During interrogation, he did not confess to the crime and evaded our questions,” Onial said.
He added that the police will transfer the hearing to the Chamoli court to request the provisional detention of the accused to recover the stolen items and continue the interrogation.
The investigation was also expanded after another person was found acting suspiciously during the donation counting process.
“We are investigating this person in depth,” Onial said.
Meanwhile, the BKTC has removed donation counting treasurer Sandesh Mehta from his post and assigned the responsibility to Kedar Singh Rawat, a functionary from the temple’s puja office.
BKTC CEO Sohan Singh Rangar said there was no wrongdoing on Mehta’s part, but he was replaced due to some shortcomings in the process of weighing donations.
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.
