Ram Temple Donation Theft: Ayodhya Police Seek Custody of Key Accused Avinash Shukla

A day after the Ayodhya Bar Association declared that no lawyer will represent the accused in the Ram Temple donation theft case, Ayodhya Police on Wednesday filed an application before Special Judge, Anti-Corruption Court, Rajat Verma, seeking a two-day police custody remand of Avinash Shukla, from whose house the highest amount of money was recovered in connection with the Ram Temple donation controversy.

This comes a day after Investigating Officer and Ayodhya Circle Officer Ashutosh Tiwari interrogated Avinash Shukla in Ayodhya jail. During the interrogation, Shukla revealed some trust officials names.

Eight accused arrested by the SIT so far include Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Lav Kush Mishra, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, Ramshankar Yadav alias Tinnu Yadav and Subhash Srivastava. The accused were grilled were for several hours by the SIT on Tuesday.

Earlier, the Ayodhya police had carried out fresh raids at the residences of three accused Avinash Shukla, Luvkush Mishra and Karunesh Pandey and sought more details from Rai about the staff at the temple.

Three days ago, Ayodhya Police visited the homes of all the accused for the probe. During this, the police recovered ₹79,85,493 allegedly linked to the embezzled donation amount from all the accused except Subhash Srivastava from whom no cash was recovered.

The highest amount around ₹20.40 lakh, was found at properties linked to Avinash Shukla, said a police officer who did not wished to be named. ₹12 lakh was found from Shukla's room and around ₹8.4 lakh was returned by his brother to the Trust last week.

Foreign currency of $900-$1000 was also shown to have been recovered from Avinash Shukla, according to the officer quoted above.

Other recoveries included ₹18.07 lakh from Karunesh Pandey, ₹16.82 lakh from Anukalp Mishra, ₹14.25 lakh from Lavkush Mishra, ₹1 lakh from Ram Shankar Yadav 'Tinnu', ₹7.32 lakh from Rama Shankar Mishra and ₹2 lakh from Manish Yadav, according to police officers. No recovery was shown from Subhash Srivastava's house.

Apart from the eight arrested men, the police have also sought details of State Bank of India (SBI) staff tasked with supervising the cash-counting job at Ram temple. In particular, two SBI Grade 3 staffers who regularly supervised the cash-counting work are on the probe team's radar, a senior police officer familiar with the matter said.

According to a senior police official who did not wish to be quoted, the probe team will also question employees of the Varanasi- based Sainik Security Services, the agency which provided additional manpower to the bank.

All eight arrested accused, including Avinash Shukla, are currently lodged in Ayodhya jail. On Wednesday, the district judge contacted Shukla via video conferencing and asked whether he had a lawyer to represent him.

As the Faizabad bar association has decided to not represent any accused, Shukla had no lawyer.

The judge apprised the District Legal Services Authority and the hearing for police custody remand will take place on Thursday via video conferencing.

"Details of all eight accused in jail at present, the SBI staff deployed in Ram Mandir and all others associated in any way with the cash-counting job in Ram Mandir are being collected," said the senior police officer.

"Details (Aadhaar and PAN) of all eight accused and SBI staff on radar have been sent to various departments, including the development authorities, income tax and revenue, to extract information about their financial status," the senior officer added.

The controversy first surfaced on June 7 when Samajwadi Party leader Tej Narayan 'Pawan' Pandey alleged that donations worth ₹5 crore to ₹7.5 crore were siphoned off from temple offerings.

On June 13, the Yogi-led Uttar Pradesh government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) at the request of the Ram Temple trust to probe the alleged irregularities. The three-member panel, comprising Lucknow Divisional Commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, Lucknow Range Inspector General Kiran S, and Special Secretary (Finance) Neel Ratan, conducted a preliminary inquiry in Ayodhya between June 15 and 20 and found prima facie irregularities in the handling of cash and valuables donated by devotees.

According to the investigators, the inquiry prima facie revealed a systematic diversion of cash during the collection and counting process. The SIT alleged that a portion of the donations was siphoned off before being deposited into the temple's designated bank account, leading to the arrest of eight employees involved in handling and counting the offerings on June 26.

Last week, police registered an FIR against eight named accused and several unidentified persons under Sections 306, 316(5), 317(4), 317(5), 61 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, relating to offences including criminal breach of trust, cheating, theft and criminal conspiracy, along with Section 13(1)(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.