Ram temple donation theft row: Court grants police remand of 3 accused

Ayodhya, Jul 7 (PTI) A local court in Ayodhya granted a one-day police remand for three of the eight accused arrested in connection with the alleged theft of donations from the Ram temple here, police sources said on Tuesday. The court authorised the remand for Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, and Karunesh Pandey, the sources added. On June 29, a local court in Ayodhya sent all eight accused to 14 days of judicial custody. According to the prosecution, custodial interrogation of the three individuals was necessary to confront them with new evidence gathered from the questioning of the five other accused who were in jail on July 5. Police told the court that the questioning yielded fresh leads, following which they sought custody of the three accused for further investigation. After hearing submissions from both the prosecution and the defence, the court reserved its order on the police plea before allowing the remand application. The accused in the case are Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Rama Shankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Rama Shankar alias Tinnu. Police have said that recoveries exceeding Rs 79 lakh have been made from the accused, with the exception of Subhash Srivastava, who is still considered part of the conspiracy. Investigators are probing whether the alleged theft of donations was an isolated act by temple staff or part of a wider conspiracy involving other persons. The case has triggered a wider probe by a three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government. According to its preliminary findings, the accused allegedly exploited security lapses in the temple's donation management system, with investigators identifying nearly 70 instances of suspected theft over a 40-day period. The SIT is said to have pointed to inadequate frisking of personnel, poor CCTV monitoring and weak supervisory mechanisms as factors that enabled repeated removal of cash from donation boxes without detection. It is also examining the role of officials responsible for overseeing the donation counting process. The investigation scope has since expanded beyond the original FIR. On July 1, the SIT was granted an additional 15 days to continue its probe and has ordered a re-audit of the trust's accounts for the past five years. Investigators are also scrutinising expenditure incurred by the trust on major events over the last two years. Amid the controversy, senior trust functionaries have resigned from their posts, while the trust has announced a series of structural reforms to strengthen oversight of donation management and financial administration. PTI COR CDN MPL MPL