Supreme Court to hear pleas seeking probe into Ram Temple Trust funds

The Supreme Court will hear petitions seeking a court-monitored investigation into alleged financial irregularities involving Ram Temple Trust donations. The pleas seek preservation of records, transparency in accounting for offerings and a comprehensive forensic audit of the Trust's finances

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is slated to hear on Monday a batch of petitions seeking a court-monitored investigation into alleged financial irregularities in the handling of donations and offerings received by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.

As per the causelist uploaded on the apex court’s official website, the clutch of matters is listed before a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana.

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The petitions include a writ petition filed by advocate Narendra Kumar Goswami, a criminal writ petition filed by petitioner-in-person Ajay Kumar Rai, a separate plea moved by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Sudhakar Singh, and another petition filed by Hindu Dharma Parishad.

At the previous hearing on September 21, the Uttar Pradesh government had informed the Supreme Court that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged irregularities had substantially completed its investigation and would file the charge sheet within the next two days.

Appearing for the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta had told the CJI-led Bench that a status report had been submitted in a sealed cover.

SG Mehta had further informed the apex court that the deadline for filing the charge sheet expired on September 25 and that the charge sheet would be filed within the stipulated period.

The Uttar Pradesh government had submitted that the investigation had been completed to a substantial extent and that the charge sheet would be filed before the competent court after completion of the remaining formalities.

Taking the submission on record, the Supreme Court had permitted the Sessions Judge concerned to pass an appropriate order in accordance with law.

The status report placed before the apex court had detailed how the SIT analysed CCTV footage and other material to identify the accused persons, besides examining records relating to donations and offerings. According to the report, the analysis of CCTV footage had revealed 105 incidents of theft of donations at the temple. It had also stated that receipts for valuable items received as offerings were generated through software and that such valuables were kept in State Bank of India (SBI) lockers.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had directed the Uttar Pradesh government to reconstitute the SIT probing the alleged irregularities and ensure a fair, speedy and qualitative investigation. The state government had subsequently informed the apex court that the reconstituted SIT was headed by Inspector General of Police Kiran S., with DIG Ayodhya Somen Verma and SSP Ayodhya Dr Gaurav Grover as members.

Taking note of the allegations concerning the alleged misappropriation of trust funds, the CJI-led Bench had also indicated that a forensic auditor should be associated with the investigation.

“Since the nature of the investigation involves alleged misappropriation of trust funds, the Solicitor General has fairly agreed that a forensic auditor shall also be associated as a member of the SIT,” the apex court had recorded in its order.

The petitions seek a court-monitored investigation into alleged financial irregularities in the handling of donations and offerings received by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. The batch includes pleas seeking preservation of donation-related records, greater transparency in the accounting of offerings and a comprehensive forensic audit of the Trust’s finances.