Ram Temple Donation Case: 8 Accused Questioned After FIR; Trustee's Complaint Led to SIT Probe

Police have detained all eight accused named in the Ram Temple donation embezzlement case for questioning, hours after registering the first FIR in connection with the alleged misuse of donations offered by devotees at the Ayodhya temple.

Reports said the accused are being questioned while police complete arrest memos and other legal procedures.

The FIR was lodged on the complaint of Krishna Mohan, a trustee of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. It was filed after the Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government, recommended criminal action in its preliminary report.

The accused named in the FIR are Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu. The FIR also names several unidentified persons.

Police have invoked provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) related to theft, criminal breach of trust, receiving or concealing stolen property, criminal conspiracy and common intention. The accused have also been booked under Section 13(1)(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The SIT was formed on June 13 after the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust sought an investigation into allegations that donations made by devotees at the Ram Temple had been misappropriated.

Who is Krishna Mohan?

Krishna Mohan became a trustee of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust on September 16, 2025, after the death of trustee Kameshwar Chaupal earlier that year.

A native of Hardoi in Uttar Pradesh, he holds an MSc degree from Lucknow University. He worked in the atomic energy sector for nearly six years before joining the Indian Forest Service in the Maharashtra cadre.

After retiring from service in 2012, he took up social work. The Trust later selected him unanimously to fill the vacant trustee position.

How the issue reached the SIT

The controversy came into the spotlight after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, on June 7, referred to reports claiming that crores of rupees collected as temple donations had gone missing. He urged the courts to take note of the allegations.

Soon after, the Uttar Pradesh government constituted the SIT to examine the allegations.

At the time, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) president Alok Kumar accused the Samajwadi Party and the Congress of trying to politicise the issue ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

Akhilesh Yadav questions probe

After the FIR was registered, Akhilesh Yadav took to X and questioned the manner in which the investigation had been conducted.

He alleged that under the BJP government, "the small fish will be punished while the big fish will be spared."

He further claimed that the SIT process may have been used to destroy evidence before the FIR was filed and to decide "which big fish to save and whom to implicate." He also alleged that the SIT report appeared to have been prepared first and the investigation carried out later to support those findings.

The investigation is underway, and police are continuing to question the accused.