Ram temple donations row: Congress demands Supreme Court-supervised probe into alleged theft

The Congress on Tuesday intensified its attack on the BJP over the alleged theft of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya demanding an independent investigation under the Supreme Courtrsquos supervision The party said devoteesrsquo faith could not be used to evade accountability and called for a full account of the offerings made to the templeCongress general secretary incharge of communications Jairam Ramesh questioned the handling of the case asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to respond to the allegationsldquoChanda Chori Aastha Dhokha Prime Minister Narendra Modi Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ajay Singh Bishtbreak your silence The nation wants to know who are the chanda chors Who are their accomplices Why is there no impartial investigation under the supervision of the Supreme Courtrdquo Ramesh said in a post on XCongress cites audit warnings from 2020Ramesh referred to a private audit firmrsquos November 2020 advice on internal audits and risk management which reportedly flagged shortcomings in the trustrsquos management unclear individual responsibilities and the absence of a systematic record of donationsAccording to the Congress leader the firm also highlighted concerns over staffing and data management and recommended standard operating procedures SOPs for handling data managing personnel and maintaining a proper stock register for donations He alleged that the recommendations were not implemented despite the warningsProbe identified 105 instances of cash removalRamesh cited findings that cash was removed from the donationcounting area on 105 occasions with CCTV footage forming part of the investigation A chargesheet filed by the Special Investigation Team SIT reportedly details these instances alongside digital evidence witness statements banking records and a forensic audit Eight people have been named as accused in the case according to reportsThe Congress however questioned whether the investigation had adequately examined the responsibility of senior functionaries and others overseeing the donationcounting processAllegations over contracts and valuable donationsRamesh also cited allegations made by Dinanath Verma an engineer associated with the temple construction who reportedly claimed that he was removed after raising concerns about financial irregularities According to Ramesh Verma had alleged that contracts involved commissions of 40 per cent that names of ghost workers appeared on records and that material quantities were inflated in billsThe Congress leader also questioned reports of valuable donations for which receipts were allegedly not issued The SITrsquos investigation however separately examined donated valuables including articles for which receipts were unavailableParty questions delay in filing FIRThe Congress also raised questions about the delay in registering the case It has alleged that a video concerning cash found near the counting chamber was received by former trust general secretary Champat Rai on June 4 while the FIR was registered on June 25 The party has questioned why the matter was not reported earlier and whether senior officials were adequately scrutinisedRamesh said the public would not be satisfied by action against only lowerlevel employees if questions remained about oversight and accountability He demanded that the audit warnings alleged irregularities in contracts and the handling of donations be examined fully and that anyone found guilty be punished in accordance with the lawldquoThe nation is demanding an account of the offerings made in the name of Ram The faith of the devotees does not grant anyone the right to evade accountabilityrdquo Ramesh said