Ayodhya Ram Temple Trust defrauded of Rs 6 lakh through fake cheques; FIR registered

On Friday, the Ram Mandir Trust's secretary Champat Rai has filed a complaint with Ayodhya Police, alleging that unknown persons have fraudulently transferred Rs six lakh from the bank account of the Ram Mandir Trust. He also alleged that the fraudsters attempted to transfer Rs 10 lakh with a third cheque that was timely detected as counterfeit by the bank. The Uttar Pradesh Police has registered an FIR, and Ayodhya DIG Deepak Kumar told that the account in which money was transferred in Mumbai. 

"We have seized the account in which the fund has been transferred. A police team has been sent to Lucknow and another team to Bombay as the account in which the money has been transferred is of Maharashtra," DIG said.

READ | Ram Mandir trust begins Ayodhya temple construction, a week after PM Modi lays foundation

Further, the DIG informed that the FIR states that those behind the crime have withdrawn Rs four lakh from the fraudulently transferred amount while Rs two lakh is still in their account. Rs 2.5 lakhs was fraudulently transferred from the Trust's account in State Bank of India (SBI) on September 1 and Rs 3.5 lakh on September 8 through a second fake cheque. The issue came to light after a senior official of the SBI in Lucknow called Rai to confirm if the Trust had issued a cheque for transfer of Rs 9.86 lakh.

Speaking to news agency PTI, Mona Rastogi, deputy manager of the clearing department of SBI said, "We give phone calls to all our customers before clearing cheques (with large amounts). I myself called the customer regarding the clearing of cheque for Rs 9 lakhs 86 thousand and the customer (Rai) received the phone after many repeated calls," "Definitely the bank had called the customer before clearing the cheques of Rs 2.5 lakhs and Rs 3.5 lakh. The call records and details are being checked to ascertain if the customer had received the calls," she said. Rastogi said had Rai not taken her call, the third cloned cheque would also have been cleared because it appeared as original and the signatures too raised no doubts.

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PM Modi lays foundation stone

Fulfilling the three-decade-long Ram Janmabhoomi movement, PM Narendra Modi performed the Bhumi Pujan ceremony at the Lord Ram's birthplace in Ayodhya, placing a metallic plaque at the base of the temple site. A week after PM Modi laid the foundation for the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya's Ram Janmabhoomi, Trust informed that construction has commenced. Taking to Twitter, trust's general secretary Champat Rai urged people to donate generously for building the temple. Details of the trust's online bank details are available on its official twitter handle. L&T which has been chosen to construct the two-storeyed temple, has been soil sampling. The temple comprising of Sompura Marbles will - span 161ft in length, 140ft in width, and 128 ft in height, and have of 5 domes. The trust has estimated that construction of the temple will be completed in 3-3.5 years i.e by 2023. 

READ | PM Modi warns 'Deviation from Ram has led to destruction' at Ram Mandir Bhumi Pujan

The Ayodhya verdict 

The Constitution Bench of the SC in its verdict on November 9, 2019, awarded the entire disputed area in Ayodhya to the Hindu parties, after a 40-day marathon hearing. It directed the Centre to formulate a scheme within three months which will be responsible for building a temple. On the other hand, the SC ordered that an alternative land of 5 acres in Ayodhya would be given to the Sunni Central Waqf Board for the construction of a mosque. 

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