Ayodhya: A major administrative controversy has emerged surrounding the management of the Ram temple in Ayodhya after a Special Investigation Team preliminary report uncovered severe institutional lapses and a systematic breakdown of cash-counting safety protocols. The fast-moving investigation has culminated in the arrest of eight individuals linked to the shrine’s donation tracking system and the subsequent recovery of nearly 80 lakh rupees in cash along with various foreign currencies. Following the submission of the investigative findings, a formal First Information Report was registered, and a local court has remanded all eight accused into judicial custody as broader inquiries continue.
The investigative report indicates that multiple mandatory Standard Operating Procedures, which had been explicitly finalized in a joint agreement between temple trust officials and State Bank of India representatives, were thoroughly compromised. Security requirements including strict routine frisking of personnel entering and exiting the monetary facility, a pocketless dress code for the counting staff, and the deployment of a specialized guard service were entirely ignored. Furthermore, investigators discovered that the secure closed-circuit television recordings of the cash-handling rooms were retained for only 45 days, directly violating a clear mandate requiring the preservation of all surveillance footage for a minimum period of 180 days.
Central to the ongoing inquiry is the unauthorized access granted to critical storage areas within the temple facility. The investigation revealed that a former personal driver to a senior trust official held physical keys to multiple high-capacity donation boxes, providing an unsupervised window for the regular siphoning of devotees’ offerings. This individual also secured employment for a relative within the cash-processing unit, creating a insulated network that repeatedly evaded internal scrutiny despite closed-circuit cameras capturing several instances of direct theft. A portion of the stolen funds was even discovered hidden inside a public utility room near the primary processing chamber just prior to the formal establishment of the state inquiry.
The quick uncovering of these systemic vulnerabilities has caused significant administrative fallout within the leadership structure of the temple management. In the immediate aftermath of the report, prominent trustees have stepped down from their administrative positions on moral grounds, reversing earlier institutional claims that internal audits had revealed no noteworthy irregularities. Given the vast influx of visitors and the massive volume of cash and valuables donated daily at the shrine, senior state officials have signaled that a comprehensive structural overhaul of the entire administrative framework is imminent to guarantee absolute transparent oversight moving forward.
