The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Centre, UP Government and the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust on three PILs seeking an independent probe by the CBI under the top court’s direct supervision into the finances of the Trust following allegations of misappropriation of donations at the Ram Temple, Ayodhya.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana directed the special investigation team (SIT) set up by the UP Government to file a status report, mentioning the composition of the SIT, in a sealed cover and posted the matter for hearing on Monday.
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The order came after Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta submitted on behalf of the Centre and the UP Government that the SIT set up by the state government was already probing the case.
The Bench did not agree with Mehta’s request to defer the issuance of notice to the Trust at this juncture.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had refused urgent listing of these petitions during the partial working days. The first PIL, filed by Narendra Kumar Goswami, a petitioner-in-person, has sought a CBI probe into the matter and an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of the finances of the Trust, which manages the temple.
The second one by petitioners-in-person — advocates Ajay Kumar Rai and Dinesh Kumar Yadav — has also sought a fair and time-bound probe by a CBI-led multi-disciplinary SIT into allegations of misappropriation of donations at the temple. They want the SIT to investigate the alleged financial irregularities and other purported “illegalities” concerning the affairs and administration of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.
Filed by RJD MP Sudhakar Singh, the third PIL has sought the transfer of the ongoing probe to the CBI under top court’s direct supervision.
Citing the ongoing SIT probe and the reported recovery of Rs 77 lakh from the eight accused arrested in the case, the PIL filed by the RJD MP from Buxar submitted that it is of exceptional public importance to safeguard the administration of the Trust and protect the offerings made by millions of devotees.
He sought a comprehensive forensic audit of all donations, transactions and assets of the Trust by an independent agency. The Trust should be directed to publish the audited financial statements and donation records on its official website in the interest of public transparency, the PIL demanded.
On June 13, the UP Government had set up a three-member SIT at the request of the temple Trust to look into the allegations of financial irregularities and misappropriation of donations at the temple.
The SIT, comprising Lucknow Divisional Commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, Inspector General of Police Kiran S and Finance Department Special Secretary Neel Ratan, submitted its preliminary report to the state government on June 23 following which an FIR was registered. Ayodhya DSP Ashutosh Tiwari is the lead investigating officer in the case.
The eight accused arrested in the case — Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lav Kush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ram Shankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Ramashankar, alias Tinnu Yadav — were associated with counting cash and valuables received as donations at the temple.
Meanwhile, accusing the police of refusing to lodge an FIR against former general secretary of the Trust Champat Rai and former Trust members Anil Mishra and Gopal Rao in the donation theft case, Faizabad Bar Association lawyers on Monday said they would approach the court to get them booked.
“We had given the police two weeks to lodge an FIR against Rai, Mishra and Rao. Today, a delegation of the association visited the police station regarding the FIR. The officers there informed us that the FIR had not been lodged and they had forwarded the complaint to their senior officials,” Aftab Khan, a member of the association, said.
Khan is a member of a 21-member committee of lawyers formed to plead the case against Rai, Mishra and Rao.