Ayodhya Ram Temple Donation Row: Here Are The 8 Accused Named In The FIR

New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh Police have named eight individuals in the FIR registered in connection with the alleged misappropriation of donations and offerings made by devotees at the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in Ayodhya, marking a major development in the high-profile Ram Mandir donation scam case. 

All eight accused in the Shri Ram Temple embezzlement case have been formally arrested by the Ayodhya police, who had previously taken them into custody.  All eight accused arrested in Ram Mandir donation case will be presented before Ayodhya District Court.

The FIR was lodged following the interim report submitted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which was constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government to investigate the allegations.

The eight accused named in the FIR are:

• Tinnu Yadav – Associate of Champat Rai. Keys to the donation box were found with him.
• Anukalp Mishra – The one who counted the donations
• Lavkush Mishra – This is Anukalp Mishra's brother-in-law. 10 lakh in cash was found at his house.
• Manish Yadav – This is Tinnu Yadav's nephew. Cash was also found at his house.
• Subhash Srivastava – The one who counted the cash.
• Avinash Shukla – He used to count the donations.
• Karunesh Pandey – He was involved in the calculation of donations.
• Ramashankar Mishra – He was involved in the counting of cash.

The FIR details allegations of intentional theft, habitual theft, aiding theft and criminal breach of trust by someone in a position of responsibility, all under a criminal conspiracy. The provisions related to embezzlement and cheating have also been applied.

The action followed the preliminary inquiry report submitted by Lucknow Divisional Commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant to Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Sanjay Prasad, who serves as an ex officio member of the trust.

The SIT was formed on June 13 after the trust requested an impartial probe into claims that cash and jewellery donated by devotees had gone unaccounted for.

During the investigation, the team questioned several people, including Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust secretary Champat Rai.

The trust, constituted on February 5, in the year 2020, after the Supreme Court verdict cleared the path for construction, is estimated to have received about Rs 3500 crore in cash donations since inception, along with jewellery and other offerings.

The controversy first gained traction on June 7, when Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav cited reports that crores of rupees from temple donations were missing and urged courts to take suo motu cognisance.

After the FIR was registered, he took to X and questioned the investigation process, alleging that under the BJP government “the small fish will be punished while the big fish will be spared”.

Akhilesh Yadav went further, claiming that people were saying the SIT process may have been used to erase evidence before the FIR and to decide “which big fish to save and whom to implicate”. He also suggested that the SIT report appeared to have been prepared in advance and the investigation was shaped to fit predetermined conclusions.

Responding to the earlier allegations, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) chief Alok Kumar accused the Samajwadi Party and the Congress of trying to extract political mileage ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

He asserted that the world was watching and referred to the SP government’s role during the Ram Mandir movement. The temple trust itself has denied any irregularities and maintained that it sought an impartial inquiry, which led the state government to constitute the SIT.

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