A new dimension has been added to the controversy surrounding the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Santosh Dubey, head of “Dharma Sena Bharat” and a former kar sevak, filed a complaint on Tuesday accusing members of the temple trust of embezzling about 200 crore rupees.
Dubey, along with veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani, was one of the main accused in the historic Babri Mosque demolition case.
In the complaint, submitted in Hindi, Dubey said: “The applicant [Dubey himself] frequently visits the Ram Janmabhoomi temple for darshan. He has often seen devotees donating gold and silver jewellery, gold and silver coins and cash to the donation boxes. It is estimated that donations worth more than 1 crore rupees in cash, coins and jewellery are deposited in the donation boxes from devotees every day.”
Dubey said responsibility for preserving and protecting these donations rested with the trustees of the Ram Janmabhoomi Trust. But instead of keeping the money safe, they had embezzled it, he alleged. In his complaint, Dubey named the trust’s general secretary, Champat Rai Bansal, and other staff.
Polygraph test demanded in the inquiry
In the complaint, Dubey alleged: “The applicant’s allegation is that, in collusion with the trust’s general secretary Champat Rai Bansal, Anil Mishra, Gopal Rao and Ramshankar Yadav alias Tinnu [known as Champat Rai’s driver] and other officials and staff of the trust, large sums of money, gold and silver jewellery and coins have been removed from the donation boxes. The value of this embezzled money and assets is estimated at more than 200 crore rupees.”
Dubey also alleged that trust officials had entered false information and fake figures in the account books to embezzle the temple’s funds. “It has been learned from reports in various media that jewellery studded with gems donated to the temple has been sold and crores of rupees siphoned off. According to the allegation, some of these items have even been recovered from ordinary thieves,” he said.
Dubey has asked Uttar Pradesh police to register a first information report (FIR) in the case. “This is highly necessary to recover the crores of rupees, gold and silver jewellery, coins and precious gems donated by devotees and to ensure the arrest of the accused. In the interest of justice and religion, an FIR should be registered under the appropriate sections of law. As part of the investigation, the accused should also undergo a polygraph (lie-detector) test,” he said.
After these allegations of misappropriation of temple funds surfaced, opposition parties began targeting Uttar Pradesh’s BJP-led government. The Samajwadi Party (SP) in particular is raising the corruption allegation widely.
In a post on social media platform X on Monday, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said: “It is highly unfortunate that BJP rule in Uttar Pradesh has sunk into corruption. Otherwise, instead of an SIT [special investigation team], an IIT [Indian Institute of Technology] would have been built here.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report