- By Aditya Jha
- Fri, 26 Jun 2026 08:08 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
- All eight accused have been arrested and were questioned
- An FIR was lodged at the Ram Janmabhoomi police station
- The senior members of the trust were questioned by the SIT
Ram Mandir Donation Theft Case: The Uttar Pradesh Police have reportedly arrested all the eight accused in the alleged embezzlement of funds from donation boxes for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Earlier on Thursday, an FIR was lodged at the Ram Janmabhoomi police station based on a complaint from Krishnamohan, a member of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. The people under the scanner either belong to the temple management or are the bank employees, reported Jagran.
The FIR has been lodged against the eight accused, including Ramshankar Yadav Tinnu, associated with the temple management, trust employee Anukalp Mishra, his brother-in-law Lavkush Mishra, Tinnu's nephew Manish Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramshankar Mishra, Avinash Shukla and retired bank employee Subhash Srivastava. The accused were also questioned by the senior officials following their arrest on Thursday, reported Jagran.
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Timeline Of The Case:
- June 7: Samajwadi Party leader and former minister Pawan Pandey alleged theft of Rs 5 crore to Rs 7.5 crore from donation boxes and offerings at the Ram Temple. Akhilesh Yadav later raised the issue of the alleged donation theft in a post on X (formerly Twitter) at 7 PM
- June 8: Champat Rai stated that all the allegations were baseless, adding that the trust has the record of all the donations. Later on the same day, temple construction committee chairman Nripendra Mishra arrived in Ayodhya and returned the next day
- June 10: The Prime Minister's Office sought a detailed report from the trust. Mishra again arrived in Ayodhya and held a four-hour meeting with the senior members of the trust
- June 11: A video of former Ram Mandir Trust accountant Mahipal Singh went viral, claiming he detected theft in 2021-2022, but the footage was later deleted
- June 13: An SIT was formed to investigate the matter
- June 15: The SIT took information from Champat Rai, general secretary of the trust, and member Gopal Rai
- June 16: The team questioned Champat Rai and Gopal Rai for four hours each. They examined the trust's documents of the past 11 months
- June 17: The investigation team questioned bank officials and representatives of the private agency involved in counting the notes
- June 19: Champat Rai, Dr Anil Mishra, and Gopal Rai were questioned separately by the SIT. The branch manager and cashier of the State Bank of India were also questioned on the same day
- June 23: The SIT submitted its 20-page preliminary report to the Home Department. Additional Chief Secretary Sanjay Prasad on Tuesday
- June 25: FIR was registered against the eight accused, later they were arrested