Ayodhya Ram Temple Donation Theft Case: FIR Registered Against 8 People On UP Govt Orders, All Arrested

Ayodhya: The Ayodhya Police have registered an FIR against 8 people and several unidentified persons over alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram Temple. The case was filed at Ram Janmabhoomi Police Station on Thursday, two days after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) handed its preliminary findings to the Uttar Pradesh government.

The Uttar Pradesh Police arrested all 8 accused in the alleged Ram Temple donation embezzlement case on Thursday, just hours after registering the first FIR over the alleged misappropriation of offerings made by devotees at the Ayodhya shrine. According to sources, the 8 accused are currently being questioned while arrest memos and other legal formalities are being completed.

The case was lodged on the complaint of Krishna Mohan, a trustee of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, following recommendations made in the preliminary report of the SIT set up by the state government. The FIR marks the first formal action in a controversy that has drawn political attention and allegations of financial irregularities in handling temple donations.

The police officials have invoked Sections 306, 316(5), 317(4), 317(5), 61 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which cover intentional and habitual theft, assisting in theft, criminal breach of trust by a public servant or institutional employee, and criminal conspiracy.

According to sources familiar with the case, the trust named 8 accused in the complaint, apart from multiple unnamed persons. As per information, those named in the FIR include the names of Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu as accused.

How The Case Was Registered

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.

Political Reaction And Counter-Allegations

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.

Further details regarding the FIR are awaited.