₹5-Crore Ramcharitmanas Book Stolen From Ram Mandir? Ex-Minister Lakshminarayan's Says Golden Copy Has Vanished Without Trace

Ayodhya: The controversy over the alleged theft of donations made to Ayodhya's Ram Mandir has intensified after former Union Home Secretary S Lakshminarayan claimed that a gold-plated copy of Ramcharitmanas worth around Rs 5 crore has been stolen from the temple premises.

The book had been donated by Lakshminarayan's family to the temple.

While taking to media, Lakshminarayan, a 1970-batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, alleged that he had offered a specially-crafted Ramcharitmanas to the temple in April 2024, around the time of the first Ram Navami after the consecration ceremony. According to him, the scripture weighed around 150 kg and had nearly 800 grams of gold in it.

The jewellery of Lakshminarayan's late mother had been melted, and then coated on the pages of the book.

He claimed that the Ramcharitmanas was donated after discussions within his family, as they wanted devotees visiting the newly built temple to be able to see and seek blessings before it. He said the work was made with great effort and emotional attachment, adding that his mother’s jewellery had also been melted for the gold work used in the scripture.

Lakshminarayan further alleged that he was not given a receipt for the offering. He claimed that after a few months of donating the book to the temple premises, his relatives who visited the temple informed him that it was not visible there.

The former Home Secretary claimed that he later visited Ayodhya and met Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust General Secretary Champat Rai. Lakshminarayan said he pleaded with him to keep the Ramcharitmanas at a suitable place, arguing that it was not an ordinary donation but a deeply personal offering from his family. He claimed he wrote several letters and sent multiple messages to the trust authorities seeking clarity, but did not receive a satisfactory response.

The allegation has come at a time when the Ram Mandir donation theft case is already under investigation. Eight accused have been arrested in connection with alleged embezzlement of donations, and police have been probing the role of people linked to the handling and counting of temple offerings.

The controversy is centered around the alleged embezzlement of Rs 7-7.5 crore worth of donations given to Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, which manages the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.

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