SIT Bars Ram Temple Trust Members, Staff from Leaving Ayodhya Amid Donation Scam Investigation

Ayodhya: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating misappropriation of donations at the Ayodhya Ram Temple has directed trust members and temple staff not to leave Ayodhya. The directive comes after those under suspicion were found leaving the city on various pretexts.

The SIT's investigation has found irregularities in the handling of gold, silver and gems offered by devotees. The directive barring travelling out of Ayodhya came after trust members failed to give satisfactory answers when questioned about records of these donations. Sixty kilograms of silver bars, specially crafted and donated by the Jewellers' Association for the temple's foundation-laying ceremony, have gone completely missing from the official records of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. While the association has a receipt confirming the silver bars were handed over to the trust, temple records make no mention of their whereabouts. There is also a complaint that 1,250 bricks made of eight sacred metals (ashtadhatu) studded with gold, silver and diamonds, received as donations during the Ram temple movement, have gone missing.

It is suspected that most of the irregularities took place during the Kumbh Mela period of January-February 2025, when the temple witnessed an unprecedented rush of devotees and a corresponding surge in donations. The SIT is focusing its scrutiny on records from this period. The alleged fraud is estimated at anywhere between Rs 200 crore and Rs 1,400 crore. Land purchases made by the temple trust also fall within the SIT's scope of investigation.

Serious allegations have long surrounded land transactions carried out after the central government formed the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in February 2020. Besides the 67 acres around the temple, the trust also purchased land near the railway station for Rs 18.5 crore for development work, in a deal executed on March 18, 2021. It later emerged that the same land had been bought by real estate dealers for just Rs 2 crore on the very same day, before being resold to the trust at the inflated price. The question of how the land's value rose by Rs 16.5 crore within a single day remains unanswered. Similar allegations exist over land valued at Rs 2.9 crore being purchased for Rs 24 crore, and land worth Rs 9 crore being bought for Rs 55 crore. With such serious allegations mounting and no answers forthcoming for devotees, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath finds himself in the dock.