Avimukteshwaranand questions Ram temple trust, says SIT will give clean chit

Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand alleged the government placed its nominees in the Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust to facilitate irregularities, questioned the credibility of the SIT probe, and urged voters to back parties supporting cow protection

Bahraich (UP): Swami Avimukteshwaranand on Tuesday alleged that the government had placed “its chosen people” at the Ram temple trust to facilitate “theft” and the SIT formed for the probe was bound to give them a “clean chit”. The construction and management of temples should remain with religious leaders, the seer told reporters at Payagpur in Bahraich district during his ongoing public awareness march on cow protection.

“This is not an accident, but a planned act,” he said. “Building a temple was the job of religious leaders, but the government placed its chosen people in the Trust so that it could get work done as it wished. We believe they were put there to facilitate theft,” he alleged.

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Avimukteshwaranand alleged Champat Rai’s resignation from the Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust was only for “show”, claiming that no one had seen the resignation and that he continued to function from the temple premises.

“The government constituted the Trust and the government itself formed the SIT. Who will punish whom? It is obvious that they will give a clean chit,” said Avimukteshwaranand, the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math. “The media itself recently showed that entry passes were still being issued with his signature,” he claimed, adding that the community of seers had lost confidence in the trust.

“Seers deliver decisions like a court. They have decided that they no longer have faith in this trust. It is now for the police to take further action,” he said.

Speaking on cow protection, the seer said governments that fail to accord the status of “rashtra mata” (national mother) to the cow do not deserve public support.

“Political parties seek votes in the name of the cow, but after coming to power, they do not take concrete steps to declare it as the ‘rashtra mata’. “We will not vote for those who do not accept the cow as ‘rashtra mata’. Any government that refuses to do so should be voted out,” he said.

Avimukteshwarananda has had several run-ins with the government, including a confrontation with the organisers of the Magh Mela in Prayagraj where he accused the administration of preventing him from taking a bath on Mauni Amavasya.