Champat Rai, who was forced to step down as the general secretary of the trust that runs the Ayodhya Ram Temple amid allegations of donation irregularities, has written an open letter, saying the Nripendra Misra-led temple construction committee cleared all decisions and made appointments for his assistance.
He added that meetings were held monthly and sometimes every 15 days. Rai stressed that the committee’s authority was absolute. He added that not a single task was executed without the committee’s approval. “If any decision was taken outside, it was not accepted. Rai also noted that scholars and experts contributed in a spirit of service and did not take any remuneration.
He said Misra inducted people of his choice into the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple Construction Committee. Rai said one of them came to Ayodhya only twice in six years, and only suggestions related to security were sought from another. Rai said a third member was regular and always attended meetings with Misra. If something was done, it was removed,” Rai said in the letter that has gone viral and triggered fresh debate over the committee’s functioning. Rai said Misra would immediately reach out to the most capable people, bring them to Ayodhya, and get issues resolved whenever the construction faced a technical or logistical hurdle.
“Until I see the letter, I will only tell you that this is a concocted story of yours [media]. There is no such letter, nor is there any such criticism, even if it were nine pages long. He has not made any such criticism. This is merely a made-up story…
The Uttar Pradesh government constituted the SIT on June 13. It filed its interim report on July 20. The Supreme Court set up a second SIT on July 20, and that is still probing the case. The controversy first surfaced on June 7 when Opposition 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 SIT.
The letter was written days after a Special Investigation Team (SIT)’s final report into allegations of irregularities in the Ram Temple collections flagged “gross lapses” in the trust’s functioning, but it exonerated him and a former trustee. Misra dismissed reports about an internal rift within the committee and said he has not seen Rai’s letter.
