Congress demands probe into Ram temple donation theft case

The Congress party intensified its criticism of the Bharatiya Janata Party over the alleged theft of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya. It questioned why charges could not be framed against eight accused for the third time.

Jairam Ramesh, the party's general secretary in charge of communications, said former temple trust officials Champat Rai and Anil Mishra were listed as witnesses rather than accused. He asked when the role of senior officials would be investigated.

“Whose secrets will be exposed if the full video footage and audio of the Ram Mandir come to light?”

Ramesh described the controversy as "donation theft, betrayal of faith" and alleged that the government wanted to protect those responsible for the alleged misappropriation. He also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the issue.

The party demanded the release of complete CCTV footage and audio recordings related to the case. Ramesh said 105 instances of donation money being removed were captured on CCTV.

He noted that warnings from a 2020 audit were issued, a video of the theft surfaced on June 4, and an FIR was registered on June 25. The accused appeared through video conferencing.

The Congress called for a Supreme Court-supervised investigation into audit warnings, financial transactions, and the alleged role of senior functionaries. It said accountability for the entire system had not yet been fixed.