A court in Ayodhya has extended the judicial custody of eight people arrested in connection with the alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram temple, with all eight to remain in jail until September 18.
The order was passed on Saturday by Special Judge Rajat Verma of the Anti-Corruption Court in Ayodhya. The accused were arrested following an FIR registered on June 25 on the basis of a preliminary report submitted by a state government-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT).
The accused 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 the temple’s donation-counting operations.
Their lawyer, Kul Shekhar Singh, confirmed that the court had extended their judicial custody till September 18.
The case centres on allegations of irregularities in the handling of cash and valuables offered by devotees at the temple. According to the prosecution, investigators have recovered Rs. 79.85 lakh so far.
Most of the arrested individuals are bank employees who had been assigned to count cash donations at the temple. Srivastava was responsible for overseeing the counting process, while Tinnu Yadav worked as a driver.
In his bail plea, Srivastava disputed the allegations and told the court that he had been falsely implicated. He also raised questions about the scope of the investigation, arguing that people other than the eight arrested accused had also participated in the donation-counting process, according to his lawyer.
The court has scheduled hearings on the bail applications in phases. The pleas of three accused will be taken up on September 11, followed by applications from another three on September 14. The remaining two bail pleas are scheduled to be heard on September 15.
The defence has also sought relief over Srivastava’s frozen Canara Bank account. During Tuesday’s hearing, his lawyer argued that the account contained his pension and was being used to meet his family’s expenses. The court deferred the matter and fixed September 9 for further hearing.
