In the ongoing investigation of the Ram Temple donation controversy, eight individuals, including a temple attendant, former bank staff, and cash counters, have been named in the First Information Report (FIR) for suspected misappropriation of funds and offerings. The arrested individuals, currently under interrogation, are Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava, and Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu, and will soon appear in court.
During questioning, Tinnu and Subhash disclosed details about the operation and implicated additional individuals, including government bank officials who allegedly facilitated the misappropriation of temple donations. The State Bank of India (SBI) was responsible for counting cash and valuables at the temple, where several banking officials are now being investigated for their potential involvement in the embezzlement scheme.
Tinnu Yadav and Subhash Srivastava are believed to have played key roles in orchestrating the temple theft, with Subhash reportedly recruiting accomplices and managing staff duties related to cash counting. Tinnu, a former driver of Temple Trust’s general secretary Champat Rai, emerged as a central figure in the controversy, while Subhash, among the arrested, supervised cash-counting operations and facilitated the diversion of donations.
Authorities view the alleged participation of banking officials as organized criminal activity, hinting at a possible Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe to uncover the full extent of the syndicate’s operations. The investigation revealed that the stolen cash was concealed in the temple’s bathroom to avoid detection before being moved offsite at night and distributed to various accounts. The illicit operation is suspected to have been ongoing for a period of 2–3 years.
