New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday instructed the court-monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) to accelerate its inquiry into allegations of financial wrongdoing involving donations collected for the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana directed the SIT to submit a sealed-cover status report detailing the progress of the investigation.
The bench also asked the SIT to consider, in an objective manner, suggestions put forward by the different parties involved in the case for improving the effectiveness and transparency of the probe.
The directions came during the hearing of several petitions seeking an investigation into claims that donations made by devotees towards the temple’s construction were not properly recorded or accounted for, as reported by The New Indian Express. The petitioners argued that the substantial amount of public money involved, along with the project’s religious significance, required strict transparency and accountability.
The court observed that an SIT had already been established to investigate the allegations. It chose not to alter the scope or terms of reference of the probe but stressed that the exercise should be completed without unnecessary delay and taken to its logical end.
The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, responsible for supervising construction of the temple, has previously rejected the allegations of financial irregularities. The trust has maintained that contributions received from devotees have been duly documented.
The case will come up before the Supreme Court again once the SIT places its report before the bench.
The petitions referred to allegations that offerings and contributions made by devotees were not properly accounted for. The petitioners sought a court-supervised investigation to ensure that the handling of the funds was subject to adequate scrutiny.
Although the court did not widen the SIT’s mandate, it made clear that the probe should be completed at the earliest and that its findings must be submitted for the court’s consideration.
The PIL was filed by advocates Narendra Kumar Goswami, Ajay Kumar Rai, Dinesh Kumar Yadav and others. It sought a court-monitored inquiry by the CBI and other agencies into the alleged diversion or misappropriation of funds received as donations for the Ram Mandir.
The petitioners also highlighted the need to immediately secure records connected with donations and offerings received at the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir in Ayodhya. These included physical documents, electronic and digital data, banking records and inventory material.
They urged that “CCTV/DVR/NVR data, QR/UPI/payment gateway logs, hundi registers, counting sheets, bank records, vault access records, inventory records and all connected material are not destroyed, overwritten, altered, moved, substituted or tampered with. The available CCTV/DVR/NVR footage and digital payment records are forensically copied/hash sealed. The SIT status/preliminary report, if submitted, is kept available in sealed cover before this Court,” the plea added.