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Investigation into Alleged Theft and Embezzlement at Ayodhya Ram Temple

Thursday, July 2, 2026
5 min read
Investigation into Alleged Theft and Embezzlement at Ayodhya Ram Temple

The Uttar Pradesh government is looking at moving this investigation. They’re considering handing the probe into the alleged theft and embezzlement of cash donated to the Ram temple in Ayodhya over to the CBI or some other central agency. There are growing demands for a fast probe, you know?

Sources tell us it's being treated as an economic offense . That kind of stuff usually needs a deep dive, which is why they’re thinking about Central oversight instead of staying solely local right now.

The Special Investigation Team the SIT it submitted some initial findings already. They got time until July 15 to finish up the work. And then they were scheduled to head back to Ayodhya on Thursday for more digging.

Meanwhile, things have been moving separately. The local police started their own parallel investigation after filing an FIR on June 25th. They searched Ayodhya and surrounding areas Pratapgarh, Gonda, Basti too. So far, they managed to recover about seventy-nine point eight lakh rupees from the eight people who were accused.

It’s a complicated picture. The police action focused mostly on getting back the cash that was allegedly stolen over those few months. But investigators feel there has to be more than just recovering money involved. They need to trace all the assets, both movable and immovable things, that those involved acquired from counting the donations.

The SIT itself hasn’t revisited Ayodhya since it sent its preliminary report to the Chief Minister's Office back on June 23rd. It’s been a bit of a standstill there.

Back to the temple side. The SIT already questioned some of the trustees of the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. Names like Champat Rai , Anil Mishra , and Gopal Rao were brought in. They looked into their role managing the cash deposited in the donation boxes.

The questioning started with understanding the day-to-day operations. Apparently, twenty to twenty-five staff members were responsible for moving those donation boxes from the visitor gallery down to the counting hall.

Then there are the people directly involved in the counting itself. Subhash Srivastav and Ramshankar Yadav alias Tinnu supervised that process. And then you had Lavkush Mishra , Anukalp Mishra , Ramashankar Mishra , Manish Kumar Yadav , and Karunesh Pandey doing the actual counting work. All five of those got arrested once the FIR was registered on June 25th. The SIT questioned them between June 16th and 21st regarding that phase.

The next big piece of the puzzle seems to be looking at the first-rung staff. Specifically, the supervisors for the Sainik Security Services. SBI had engaged these people for security and manpower when they were counting the money and moving it to the bank branch. That’s where the focus is shifting now.

Written by Gree News Team — Senior Editorial Board

Gree News Team covers international news and global affairs at Gree News. Our collective of senior editors is dedicated to providing independent, accurate, and responsible journalism for a global audience.

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