A public interest litigation has been filed before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court seeking judicial directions for an independent probe monitored by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CB) into alleged financial irregularities involving donation collections at the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir in Ayodhya.
Filed by Advocate Mohit Ashok, the petition sought a time-bound, independent and court-supervised inquiry into the alleged misappropriation of offerings made by devotees, including cash as well as gold and silver deposits. It further sought directions to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India to conduct a comprehensive forensic audit of the accounts maintained by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.
The PIL mentioned a news report published in a national daily on June 8, which referred to alleged discrepancies in temple donation handling and internal financial controls. As per the plea, certain employees of the Trust were stated to have been detained by police, with around four individuals reportedly taken into custody during preliminary investigation.
It further claimed that nearly Rs 5 lakh were recovered from a bank account linked to a Trust employee. Despite these developments, the petitioner argued that the institutional response has been limited to denial rather than a structured internal inquiry or regulatory intervention.
The Trust’s official spokesperson, Gopal Rao, and security officer Balramachari Dubey reportedly publicly dismissed the allegations as unfounded. However, the petition contended that such denial, particularly in light of custodial interrogation and reported recovery of funds, raised serious questions regarding administrative accountability and the credibility of internal oversight mechanisms.
The petition placed reliance on disclosures attributed to a former Head of Accounts of the Trust, Mahipal Singh, who served between January 2021 and March–April 2022. According to the petition, Singh had alleged systemic irregularities in the cash counting and accounting processes. It was stated that during cash verification procedures, amounts of approximately Rs 12 lakh were allegedly recorded as Rs 9–10 lakh in official vouchers, suggesting possible diversion of funds with alleged involvement of intermediaries, including banking personnel.
The plea further recorded allegations that when discrepancies, including an instance of Rs 5 lakh excess cash, were brought to the attention of senior functionaries such as the General Secretary Champat Rai and Gopal Rao, no inquiry was initiated. Instead, it was claimed that the whistleblower was removed from the accounting process.
The PIL contended that the purported deletion of several months of CCTV footage was a potential destruction of electronic evidence relevant to the inquiry. It further alleged that multiple donation chests containing gold and silver articles were removed without proper accounting entries or issuance of receipts, with only photographic documentation being maintained. Objections raised regarding voucher verification, accounting signatures and procedural transparency were disregarded, with instructions allegedly issued that the concerned official’s role was limited and non-participatory, it noted.
The petitioner argued that the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust functioned as a public trust managing assets and funds in a fiduciary capacity on behalf of devotees and the public at large. It relied upon the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Ayodhya title dispute (M. Siddiq v. Mahant Suresh Das, 2019) along with relevant government notifications to support the contention that the Trust was subject to heightened standards of public accountability and judicial scrutiny.
The petitioner apprised the Court that representations were earlier submitted to various authorities, including the Principal Secretary (Vigilance), Government of Uttar Pradesh; the Director General of Police; the Comptroller and Auditor General of India; and the Ministry of Home Affairs, seeking initiation of a CBI investigation. However, no substantive or independent inquiry had been undertaken despite such communications, leading to the present plea. The matter is expected to be listed for hearing before the High Court in the coming week.
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