The Supreme Court-mandated Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Wednesday filed a more than 60,000-page chargesheet against eight accused in the alleged Ram temple donation theft case before the anti-corruption court in Ayodhya detailing the findings of an extensive three-track investigation into alleged cash pilferage, valuable donations and the financial dealings of the accused, senior police officials privy to the investigation said.
Investigators, however, found no evidence of pilferage while the segregated and counted cash was being transported to banks for deposit, the official added. The SIT, headed by Lucknow range inspector general of police Kiran S, found evidence of 105 instances of alleged unauthorised removal or concealment of cash during the counting process inside the temple premises, a senior police official privy to the investigation said. The eight accused—Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu–were arrested on June 26.
The first track focused on the handling of cash from donation boxes and counters—from counting and segregation to preparation for bank deposits, according to senior police officials privy to the investigation.
The chargesheet, described by people aware of the development as one of the most voluminous prosecution documents in the case, contains the findings of the investigation into the handling of cash collected at the Ram temple, its subsequent movement to banks and the accounting and verification of valuable donations. The prosecution documents also incorporate findings of a separate forensic audit ordered as part of the Supreme Court-mandated probe. Three-track investigation The second SIT was constituted by the Supreme Court in July, with Kiran S as its head and DIG Ayodhya Somen Barma and SSP Ayodhya Gaurav Grover as members.
The chargesheet is accompanied by documents relating to bank transactions, properties, assets and other financial dealings of the accused, according to a senior police official privy to the investigation. The court also directed the inclusion of a forensic auditor in the investigation, according to sources aware of the development.
