Ayodhya court denies bail to three accused in Ram temple donation theft case

A special court in Ayodhya on Monday rejected the bail pleas of three men arrested in connection with the alleged theft of donations at the Ram temple, their counsel said.

Special Judge Rajat Verma of the Anti-Corruption Court heard the applications of Avinash Shukla, Manish Kumar Yadav and Ram Shankar Mishra. Advocate Kul Shekhar Singh, appearing for the accused, said the court turned down the pleas after hearing arguments from both sides.

The defence contended that the provisions relating to corruption and criminal breach of trust by a public servant, invoked in the case, did not apply to the accused because they were not government employees. If those two sections were set aside, the remaining offences would carry a maximum punishment of seven years, and bail could be granted in the absence of special circumstances, the counsel argued. The lawyer also submitted that the police had not yet filed a chargesheet.

The three are among eight people whose judicial custody was extended until September 21 by the same court last Friday. Their bail applications were taken up on Monday.

According to the counsel, the bail pleas of three other accused will be heard on Tuesday, while the applications of the remaining two are scheduled for Wednesday.

The case concerns the alleged embezzlement of cash and valuables offered by devotees at the temple. The eight accused were arrested after an FIR was registered on June 25, following a preliminary report by a Special Investigation Team constituted by the state government. They are currently lodged in jail.

The other accused are Anukalp Mishra, Lav Kush Mishra, Karunesh Pandey, Subhash Srivastava and Ramashankar alias Tinnu Yadav. Most of them were bank employees deployed to count cash donations at the temple. Srivastava was in charge of the donation-counting process, while Tinnu Yadav worked as a driver and was a close associate of former Shri Ram Teerth Kshetra Trust general secretary Champat Rai.

Investigators have so far recovered ₹79.85 lakh, according to the prosecution. The court had earlier directed the police to produce the case diary and investigation report, as hearings on the bail applications had been repeatedly deferred after the investigating officer failed to submit the report.