Ayodhya: Amid the massive donation theft scandal comes another serious allegation against the management of Ayodhya Ram Mandir.
Former Union Home Secretary S Lakshminarayanan has alleged that a gold-plated copy of the Ramcharitmanas, worth around Rs 5 crore, has been moved from the Ayodhya temple.
According to Lakshminarayanan, his family donated the 125 kg, 24-carat gold coated Ramcharitmanas to the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in April 2024, three months after the consecration ceremony performed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It was on public display initially, but the former IAS officer said he found it ‘missing’ from December 2024.
“I told Champat Rai repeatedly to restore it to its original place that it deserves, but he paid no heed,” Lakshminarayanan told India Today.
Rai then told him that every offering made to the temple cannot be displayed in the Ram Mandir.
Speaking to NDTV, Lakshminarayanan said the Ramcharitmanas was a “treasure of devotion” of her late mother.
“She spent almost 15 to 18 years of her life writing the name of Lord Ram. My family has been associated with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement for many decades. The first brick sent from Kanyakumari for the movement came from my father in law’s house. We are a family of Lord Ram,” he narrated.
He said he feels blessed by the Lord for allowing him to retire, and after retirement, it was time for him to dedicate some of his earnings back to Lord Ram. “The government pension is sufficient for my needs. I lead a very simple life. I felt that whatever wealth God had blessed me with, it should go back in his service,” he said.
Lakshminarayanan and his wife Saraswathy then decided to donate to the Ayodhya Ram Mandir. The manuscript, made of gold, silver and copper, has 522 gold-plated pages with all 10,902 verses of Goswami Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas.
Before the Ramcharitmanas, the Opposition and India Bullion and Jewellers Association (IBJA) raised questions about the alleged disappearance of a large amount of donated silver bars and bricks from Ram Mandir.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged embezzlement of donations, is looking at the possibility whether precious ornaments stolen from the shrine were melted and converted into gold biscuits to erase their identity, India Today TV reported.
