Appointment of CEO for the first time in Ram Mandir Trust, SIT report raises many questions

Ram Mandir Trust: After irregularities in the counting of donations and offerings in the Ram temple of Ayodhya, Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has taken a major administrative decision. Now for the first time a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will be appointed to oversee the entire management and financial system of the temple. The Trust believes that this will make the temple system more transparent, safe and accountable than before.

High level committee formed to select CEO

A three-member high level committee has been formed to select the new CEO. This committee will be headed by retired judge Pramod Kohli. Along with him, two former senior officers of the Indian Army, Lieutenant General Vishnukant and Lieutenant General Suresh Howde will also be members. This committee will select the first CEO of the temple after examining all the eligible candidates.

Serious flaws revealed in SIT report

This decision has been taken at a time when the preliminary report of the SIT (Special Investigation Team) submitted to the Uttar Pradesh government revealed many serious flaws in the management of donations. According to the report, the matter was not limited to the theft of just a few employees, but there was lack of monitoring and major security lapses in the entire system.

During the investigation, CCTV footage showed some employees taking out money from bundles of notes, hiding loose notes and doing suspicious activities. The SIT admitted that rules were not followed at many levels in the process of counting the offerings.

Many suspicious incidents seen in CCTV

SIT examined CCTV recordings of the months of April and May. About 70 such incidents came to light in which the behavior of employees was found suspicious. The investigation also revealed that the employees were not searched during the counting and they were also allowed to take personal belongings inside.

In the preliminary investigation, the role of 6 people has been considered suspicious. These include Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey and Ramashankar Mishra alias Tinnu. SIT says that evidence and seizures have also been made against them at the initial stage.

Champat Rai and Anil Mishra resigned

After the whole matter came to light, there was a stir in the trust also. To ensure a fair investigation, Trust General Secretary Champat Rai and Trustee Anil Mishra resigned from their posts on moral grounds. The Trust has accepted the resignations of both. Apart from this, Gopal Rao has also been removed from the list of special invitees. The Trust says that the truth of the entire matter will come out only after the investigation is completed.

How much donation has the temple received so far?

The Trust also made public the complete accounts of donations and expenses of the temple during the meeting. Donations worth Rs 3,264 crore have been received so far through the temple construction campaign and other means. Out of this, Rs 2,370 crore has been spent on temple construction and other capital works.

From the inception of the trust till March 31, 2026, devotees made cash offerings worth Rs 582 crore. Of this, Rs 389 crore was used for the operation and other expenses of the temple, while the remaining amount was kept safe in bank accounts.

Also read: Who is Krishna Mohan? Who was made the new General Secretary of Ram Mandir Teerth Kshetra Trust

Complete records of valuable gifts are also being maintained.

Apart from cash donations, devotees have also gifted a large number of jewelery and other valuables to Lord Ramlala. According to the Trust, so far 2,926 valuable items have been donated to the temple. All these are kept in secure lockers and the description, weight and date of receipt of each item are recorded in a special register.

These gifts are also physically verified every year by an independent chartered accountancy firm. The Trust has also said that if any donor wants to get information or verification of his donation, he can take time to come to Ayodhya and confirm it.

Also read: Ram Temple donation theft: Govind Giri showed the recovered items, see what was found in the video.