Uttar Pradesh: A big revelation has come to light in the donation theft case in Ayodhya Ram temple. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court on Monday that 105 incidents of theft of donations inside the temple have been captured in CCTV cameras. He told the court that the investigation of the SIT probing the case is in the final stages and the charge sheet will be filed by September 25.
Status report seen during hearing
The Supreme Court saw the status report of the SIT during the hearing of this case. It has been told in the report that there are complete details of the arrests made so far, statements of witnesses and recovered evidence. The report also mentions how the accused were identified through the analysis of CCTV footage. The court has taken all the evidence on record.
The petitioners refused to give a copy of the report.
According to the report, receipts for valuables in the temple were made using a special software and the donated items were kept in the locker of State Bank of India. During the hearing, the petitioners asked for a copy of the SIT report, but the bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant refused. The court said that it does not want to take the case out of the sessions court and will order further investigation if necessary. Also directed the lower court to take action on the charge sheet as per law.
It is noteworthy that this matter came to light in May-June this year. After this, Ram Mandir Trust General Secretary Champat Rai and member Anil Mishra were removed from the post. A new administrative structure was created in the trust and former army officer Jitendra Mishra was appointed CEO.
How much cash has been recovered so far?
In this case, an FIR was registered against 8 people in June 2026 under BNS and Anti-Corruption Act. All the accused are arrested and are in judicial custody. These include Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Luvkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu. The investigating agency has so far recovered Rs 79.85 lakh in cash. On June 13, the state government had constituted a three-member SIT headed by Lucknow Commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant.