The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust will decide its next course of action after the Supreme Court’s final order on the Ram temple donation theft allegations.
After the allegations surfaced in June, the police registered an FIR on June 25 and arrested eight accused the next day. They were remanded in judicial custody, which, on September 5, was extended till September 18.
After the final order, a meeting of the trust’s advocates will be held and an action plan will be prepared as per court directions, Govind Dev Giri, the trust’s newly appointed general secretary, said in Ayodhya recently.
The previous Supreme Court hearing was on August 17. The Supreme Court is hearing a batch of three petitions seeking a court-monitored probe into the alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram temple, including the demand for a CBI investigation, forensic audit and CAG audit of the trust’s accounts. The next hearing will be crucial for the future course of investigation and audit mechanisms, after which Trust will hold a meeting of its legal team to prepare the next action plan as per court directions. They have sought preservation of financial records including physical documents, digital ledgers, UPI logs, bank statements, CCTV footage and DVR recordings.
Trust officials said they are awaiting final directions from the Supreme Court on aspects like receipt maintenance and accounting.
A Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, had earlier cautioned against politicising the issue, observing it is a simple case of crime commission and the court’s role is only to ensure a proper investigation.
