Recently ousted Ram Temple Trust general secretary Champat Rai has disavowed the 2025 document detailing guidelines for the cash counting process and said he never saw the agreement bearing the signatures of former trust member Anil Mishra and then local branch director of the State Bank of India (SBI), HT has learnt.
In his one-page Hindi submission before the Special Investigation Team (SIT), seen by HT, Rai said he personally signed every page of the February 9, 2024 agreement with the SBI, under which security measures such as CCTV cameras and an iron-barred door were installed at the entrance to the counting room.
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“I reject it”: Champat Rai on message
But he added that he was not aware of another agreement dated February 6, 2025 bearing the signatures of former trustees Anil Mishra and Govind Mishra, director of SBI’s Naya Ghat branch, where the fund had an account.
“I do not agree at all with this letter,” Ray said in his letter dated July 6. “I reject it.”
The sponsor claimed that although this 2025 agreement – referred to in the submission as the “Specific Joint Guidelines for the Screening Process” – stated that a copy had been sent to the Secretary-General, he only learned about it on 13 June 2026, from the Accounts Office.
He added that all documents related to the count were submitted by the Audit Bureau, but his signature was not on them. “In all the agreements concluded from August 2020 to June 2026, there is only my signature and the principal official of the second party concerned. Why were my signatures not obtained on this direction letter? If I was not in Ayodhya, they should have waited,” he said.
Anil Mishra has not made any public statement since the controversy erupted.
Read also | Champat Rai breaks his silence on the issue of the “theft” of the Ram Temple, and says, “Be silent because…”
Rai blamed the SBI for not reporting the “breach of rules”.
In the filing, Rai also blamed SBI, alleging that security rules put in place by the bank were violated but were never reported. The former secretary-general said all banks in the country had strict chest room protocols – entry and exit inspections, uniforms without pockets. He pointed out that “the bank did not implement this, and although it was written in the guidance letter, it was not implemented. The clothes that the bank initially provided had pockets.”
“The bank ignored its own chest room rules.”
Al-Rai wondered how this leniency occurred. “The senior officials of the bank will explain how the laxity in following the treasury room rules occurred. In my opinion, the rules operating in the banks were completely ignored. Perhaps even the senior officials of the bank were not aware of this directive letter, otherwise the error would have been discovered at some level.”
Rai also alleged that the rules were being violated with impunity. He said in the memorandum he signed: “The bank has selected the young men for the count and kept them as housekeeping employees. Is this true? For this reason, I believe that the senior officials of the bank may not know anything.”
There was no immediate response from SBI.
Resignation is accepted by the trust
These developments came a day after the Ram Temple Trust accepted the resignation of Rai as general secretary and Anil Mishra as a member, sacked director Gopal Rao, and announced a three-member committee to appoint a new CEO as it seeks to restore its image after a swirl of donations theft allegations.
At a meeting of the trust at the Ram Mandir complex in Ayodhya, the body also slammed critics, saying all 2,926 offering items received from devotees have been registered in a register with full details, and appointed Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh member and trustee Krishna Mohan – who filed the first information report in the case – as interim general secretary.
It was the biggest fallout yet from allegations of irregularities in donations to the Ram temple that surfaced last month and have had deep religious and political ramifications, especially in Uttar Pradesh, where assembly elections are expected early next year. Rai, who has not made a public statement since the controversy emerged last month, broke his silence on Tuesday with an open letter, expressing sadness over allegations of fundraising irregularities.
“Since 7th June 2026, various kinds of discussions/rumors have been circulating regarding the theft committed during the count of the donation box on the premises of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple. Personally, many people have made baseless allegations against me. I have remained silent. In the temple trust meeting held on 6th July, the initial report of the Special Investigation Team was submitted. This report has now become public, though it was ‘strictly confidential’. I assure you all that as soon as the final report of the Special Investigation Team is released, “Special investigation, I will give my response point by point in the appropriate sequence of all the points being published.”
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 set up the Special Investigation Committee. 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 month, a First Information Report 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.
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 related to each other and also trust member Anil Mishra. Ram Shankar Yadav – Rai’s assistant – and Manish Yadav are linked.
Last week, the police made an arrest $79,85,493 of the eight men arrested recovered money from pigeons, haystacks and cow dung cakes.
