Ram Mandir donation scam: Temple trust to review resignations of Champat Rai, Anil Mishra

The managing body of the grand Ram temple in Ayodhya on Saturday confirmed receiving the resignations of its general secretary, Champat Rai, and trustee Anil Mishra amid the mounting controversy over the alleged embezzlement of donations at the shrine.

In a press release, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust said that a decision on the resignations will be taken at its next meeting. This came a day after Rai, a prominent face of the Ram Mandir movement, tendered his resignation as the top office-bearer of the temple trust while citing moral responsibility.

The move followed the registration of an FIR that named eight known accused and several unidentified persons in connection with the alleged donation theft.

The case was filed following recommendations from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was constituted on June 13 by the Uttar Pradesh government to probe allegations of irregularities in the handling of donations and offerings made by devotees at the temple.

Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu have been named as accused in the FIR and were arrested on Thursday, June 25.

All of them have been sent to judicial custody till June 29.

Charges pertaining to theft, criminal breach of trust, receiving or concealing stolen property, criminal conspiracy and acts committed in furtherance of a common intention, along with other offences, have been invoked against them.

The SIT's preliminary report was submitted to the state government on June 23. The case has sparked a major controversy in the political landscape of UP.

Opposition parties maintain that the FIR was an "eyewash" as it did not fix accountability on senior Trust functionaries, including Rai, who is also the vice president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).

On the other hand, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has vowed that "no one" found guilty of playing with people's faith will be spared.

While the details of how the donations were allegedly syphoned and exactly how much are still under investigation, the SIT has purportedly pointed to some major lapses in its preliminary report.

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) like deploying a security guard during a counting process, frisking of personnel while entering and leaving the counting room, and preserving CCTV footage of the donation-counting process for 180 days were violated, sources told news agency PTI, citing the findings of the report.

The SOPs, finalised at a meeting of trust officials and State Bank of India representatives, were reportedly put in place in 2025 after the trust officials suspected that something was amiss in the donation counting process.

Mishra, a key member of the temple trust, was one of the two people – the other being a bank employee – who had formally signed off on the SOPs.

The allegations of misappropriation of donation funds were first raised by Samajwadi Party chief and former CM Akhilesh Yadav on June 7.