The Congress has demanded a Supreme Court-monitored inquiry by a Special Investigation Team into the alleged embezzlement of donations made to the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Congress leader Pramod Tiwari described the Special Investigation Team currently looking into the case as a “sham” and alleged that the officer leading the investigation was himself facing a criminal inquiry.

Tiwari alleged at a press conference that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has been “looting people” in the name of the deity Ram for a long time.

“I’m not saying that everyone in the Bharatiya Janata Party is a ‘donation thief’, but everyone who is a ‘donation thief’ is in the BJP,” Tiwari said.

The Rajya Sabha MP claimed that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Ayodhya in 2024 to inaugurate the temple, Rs 112 crore was spent on preparations. “Flowers were bought at 5 to 10 times the price and the cost of chairs was so exorbitant that new chairs could have been purchased,” he said.

The Congress MP further said that Modi cannot escape accountability for the “donation theft” as every member of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust had been personally selected by him. He alleged that seers and saints were kept out of the trust, while individuals affiliated with the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh were inducted into it.

Tiwari accused former Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust General Secretary Champat Rai of orchestrating the alleged irregularities and institutionalising the “theft”.

Ram temple donation embezzlement case

A new special investigation team has begun probing the alleged embezzlement of donations made to the Ram temple

An earlier three-member SIT was formed on June 13 at the request of the temple trust after Opposition leaders and a whistleblower raised questions about how donations were being handled at the temple.

In its preliminary report, submitted to the Uttar Pradesh home department on June 23, the SIT found 70 instances of counting staff hiding bundles of notes and loose cash in their clothes, pockets and shoes. Scroll has seen a copy of the report.

The report alleged that offerings were stolen during the counting process, with staff routinely hiding cash on their bodies and walking out with it, as systems meant to stop this were not enforced. It also flagged serious lapses by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust and the State Bank of India, the banker to the trust.

The report held trustee Anil Mishra, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader, responsible for the dilution of security protocols in the counting room but did not recommend any action against him.

While it did not name Rai, one of his aides was among the eight staffers it recommended that the police investigate. The eight persons were also named in a first information report registered on June 25.

Mishra and Rai have resigned from their positions in the trust.

Written by Anamika Pathak. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

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