A crucial meeting of the Ram Mandir Teerth Kshetra Trust has been called for Monday afternoon, even as allegations of donation theft continue to shadow the temple's administration. The gathering, scheduled for 3 pm inside a guest house within the Ram Mandir complex itself, is expected to focus heavily on two high profile resignations and the findings that have emerged so far from the ongoing SIT investigation.
Why the venue was changed
Police sources indicate the meeting was originally planned to be held at Mani Ram Das Chhawni. However, citing concerns over media presence and the need for privacy, the trust decided at the last moment to shift the venue inside the temple premises. According to the trust, the meeting of members will now actually take place on the evening of July 6 at 3 pm, within the Ram Mandir complex.
SIT questions five accused inside jail
A day earlier, on Sunday, an SIT team visited the jail and spent hours questioning five of the accused already in custody. During this round of questioning, a CO rank officer tried to extract details about certain properties linked to the accused. Even so, Monday's meeting is expected to be dominated by discussion of Champat Rai's resignation and the facts that have surfaced through the SIT probe so far. The resignation of trustee Anil Mishra is also certain to come up for detailed discussion.
Nrityagopal Das to join via video call
Trust president Nrityagopal Das has already been discharged from hospital, and he is widely expected to take part in the meeting. However, health issues have kept him from travelling to Delhi, so he will instead join proceedings from Lucknow through video conferencing. The 89 year old had been suffering from breathing difficulty along with a UTI, or urinary tract infection, which led to his hospitalisation at a facility in Lucknow.
Champat Rai and Anil Mishra have already quit
Soon after the donation scam came to light, general secretary Champat Rai and trustee Anil Mishra both tendered their resignations from their respective posts. Neither resignation has been accepted by the trust so far, and Monday's meeting will decide whether to accept them. Should either or both resignations be formally approved, the same meeting could also take up the question of appointing replacements. The trust currently has 15 members in total, of which 12 were nominated directly by the central government, while the remaining three were elected during the board's very first meeting.
Eight people arrested so far
After the donation theft allegations surfaced, the Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh moved quickly to set up a Special Investigation Team to look into the matter. Since the probe began, the SIT has arrested eight people in total, including Tinnu Yadav, considered close to Champat Rai. The investigating team has also questioned both Champat Rai and Anil Mishra, but neither of their names appears in any FIR filed so far, and no charges have been framed against either of them. Meanwhile, trust treasurer Swami Govind Dev Giri Maharaj has maintained that the trust's financial system is transparent, even as he insisted that whoever is found guilty must be brought to justice. According to sources, the SIT may also go on to examine the trust's audit reports from previous years as part of its financial scrutiny.
