Nearly three months after the Ram temple donation-theft controversy surfaced and led to multiple probes, including the constitution of two Special Investigation Teams, and the resignation of Champat Rai as general secretary, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust on Wednesday initiated a major restructuring as it appointed Air Marshal (retired) Jeetendra Mishra as its first full-time chief executive officer (CEO) and made the incumbent treasurer Govind Dev Giri new full-time general secretary, replacing Krishna Mohan, who was holding charge as interim general secretary.
I include the time spent in the NDA. And a few months after I retired, I got this opportunity to serve the Shri Ram Temple and the Ram Bhakts. A native of Bhopatpura village under Bhatpar Rani police station in Deoria district of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Mishra is one of the IAF’s most decorated officers who led the Indian Air Force’s Western Air Command in Operation Sindoor. A second SIT was constituted in July following the Supreme Court’s direction for an IPS-led investigation. The second SIT is headed by inspector general of police (Lucknow range) Kiran S and includes deputy inspector general (Ayodhya range) Somen Barma, Ayodhya senior superintendent of police Gaurav Grover and additional superintendent of police (Barabanki) Ritesh Kumar Singh. However, it found no evidence of financial impropriety at the leadership level. The report exonerated former Champat Rai and trustee Anil Mishra, stating that there was no evidence of their direct involvement in the alleged misappropriation of donation money.
That’s 43 years in uniform. He also was part of the team that operationalised laser-guided bombs which delivered precise, devastating strikes on Pakistani intruders at Tiger Hill and Muntho Dhalo during the Kargil War as Squadron Leader in 1999. The donation theft controversy first surfaced on June 7 when Samajwadi Party leader Tej Narayan ‘Pawan’ Pandey alleged that donations worth ₹ 5 crore to ₹ 7.5 crore were siphoned off from temple offerings. On June 13, the state government set up the first SIT comprising Lucknow divisional commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, inspector general of police (Lucknow range) Kiran S and special secretary (finance) Neel Ratan. All eight accused named in the FIR — Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu, Manish Yadav, Subhash Srivastava, Avinash Shukla, Rama Shankar Mishra and Karunesh Pandey — were arrested on June 26.
Because from the age of 17 years till 60 years, I got the opportunity to serve the nation in the Indian Air Force, “I am very fortunate.
I think there cannot be anybody more fortunate than me,” he said. On August 17, the first SIT’s final report flagged “gross lapses” in the functioning of the trust and the lack of professional financial management in the Trust.
