Supreme Court ends monitoring of Ram temple donation theft case, allows petitioners to assist trial

The Supreme Court on Monday brought its monitoring of the alleged theft of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya to a close after the Uttar Pradesh government informed it that a charge sheet had been filed against eight accused. The petitioners who had sought an independent investigation will now be allowed to assist the judicial magistrate during the trial, given the public interest involved in the case.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana directed the magistrate to proceed in accordance with the law. It also clarified that its order should not prejudice any party, as the court had not expressed an opinion on the merits of the allegations.

"Since there is an element of public interest involved, liberty is granted to the petitioner to assist the court of judicial magistrate as the law enables the victims of crime to also assist the court," the bench said while disposing of the writ petition and connected matters.

The order followed submissions by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Uttar Pradesh government along with Additional Advocate General and senior counsel Sharan Dev Singh Thakur. Mehta informed the court that the investigation had been completed and the charge sheet filed.

Explaining the findings, Mehta said the alleged theft took place during the counting of donations inside the temple premises. Investigators had traced the suspected proceeds through the accused persons' bank accounts and property purchases, including land acquisitions. He also told the bench that a forensic audit had been conducted and that all donated valuables had been accounted for.

The charge sheet, running into more than 60,000 pages, was filed before the anti-corruption court in Ayodhya in September.

SIT identifies 105 instances of alleged cash pilferage

The investigation was carried out by a second Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Supreme Court in July. It was headed by Lucknow range Inspector General of Police Kiran S and tasked with independently examining allegations of donation theft and irregularities in the handling of valuables.

According to the findings submitted by the Uttar Pradesh government, the SIT identified 105 instances of alleged unauthorised removal or concealment of cash during the counting of donations inside the temple. However, investigators found no evidence of pilferage when the counted and segregated cash was transported from the temple to banks.

The investigation covered three principal areas: cash collections and their handling, valuable donations received by the temple, and the financial transactions and assets of the accused.

Investigators examined CCTV footage, witness statements, electronic records, banking documents and recovery material. A forensic audit was also conducted to establish the alleged financial irregularities and trace the movement of money.

The SIT physically verified 803 valuable articles for which receipts had been generated through the temple trust's software. It also examined another 86 articles for which receipts were unavailable. Officials reported no discrepancies in the reconciliation of the valuables.

Around 944.411 kg of silver sent for melting to the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd was also verified.

The investigation specifically examined donations that had featured in media reports, including silver bricks weighing 200 kg and 38.288 kg, a silver necklace, a pair of charan paduka and a donated copy of the Ramcharitmanas.

The SIT also scrutinised the bank accounts, financial transactions, properties, vehicles, jewellery and expenditure of the eight accused and their close relatives to determine whether their assets were proportionate to their known sources of income.

As part of the investigation, 173 witnesses were examined. They included temple functionaries, personnel involved in counting donations, bank officials, security staff, CCTV operators, chartered accountants and vendors.

The charge sheet names eight accused: Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu, Manish Yadav, Subhash Srivastava, Avinash Shukla, Rama Shankar Mishra and Karunesh Pandey. Police also recovered approximately ₹79.85 lakh allegedly linked to the suspected embezzlement from seven of the eight accused.

How the donation theft allegations emerged

The controversy surfaced on June 7, when Samajwadi Party leader Tej Narayan 'Pawan' Pandey alleged that donations worth between ₹5 crore and ₹7.5 crore had been siphoned off from offerings made at the Ram temple.

Following the allegations, the Uttar Pradesh government constituted an SIT on June 13 to investigate the matter. Eight employees associated with the handling and counting of donations were arrested on June 26.

The first SIT, headed by Lucknow divisional commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, submitted its final report in August. It flagged serious lapses in the functioning of the temple trust but exonerated two of its senior former functionaries.

The Supreme Court subsequently constituted a second SIT in July to ensure an independent investigation into the allegations. The team examined the suspected diversion of cash, the handling of valuable donations and the financial dealings of those accused.

The second investigation identified 105 instances of alleged cash removal or concealment during the counting process, compared with 70 suspected instances identified during the initial probe.

Trust's separate plea on land adjudicated in 2019

During Monday's proceedings, the Supreme Court was also informed about a separate petition filed by the Ram Janmabhoomi Case Trust seeking directions in connection with the court's 2019 judgment that paved the way for the construction of the Ram temple.

The trust sought an independent survey and verification of the land adjudicated in the 2019 verdict. It requested that the survey be conducted by technically qualified experts and that relevant revenue, cadastral, survey, acquisition and planning records be produced.

The objective of the proposed exercise was to establish whether the present Ram Janmabhoomi temple stands on precisely the same premises that were adjudicated by the Supreme Court in its 2019 judgment.

The bench, however, declined to entertain the request and told the trust that it could approach a civil court for the reliefs sought.

With the charge sheet now filed and the investigation completed, the Supreme Court has disposed of the petitions seeking its continued intervention in the donation theft case. The judicial magistrate will proceed with the trial in accordance with the law, while the petitioners have been permitted to assist the proceedings in view of the public interest involved.