Ayodhya court rejects bail pleas of three accused in Ram temple donation theft case

A special court in Ayodhya on Monday (September rejected the bail applications of three accused arrested in connection with the alleged theft of donations at the Ram temple here, their lawyer said.

Special Judge Rajat Verma of the Anti-Corruption Court heard the bail applications of Avinash Shukla, Manish Kumar Yadav and Ram Shankar Mishra, advocate Kul Shekhar Singh, who represents the accused, told PTI.

The three were among eight accused whose judicial custody was extended till September 21 by the court on Friday (September 18). Their bail applications were taken up for hearing on Monday (September 21).

Mr. Singh said the defence argued 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 as they were not government employees.

“The defence argued that if these two provisions, which it claimed had been wrongly invoked by police, were removed, the remaining offences carried a maximum punishment of seven years and the accused could be granted bail in the absence of any special circumstances,” he said.

“The lawyer also submitted that the police had so far failed to file the chargesheet in the case, but the court rejected the bail applications after hearing the arguments,” he said.

Mr. Singh said the bail applications of three other accused will be heard on Tuesday (September 22), while the application of the remaining two accused is scheduled to be taken up on Wednesday (September 23).

The case relates to the alleged embezzlement of cash and valuables offered by devotees at the Ram temple. The eight accused were arrested after an FIR was lodged on June 25 following a preliminary report by a state government-constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT). 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 the accused were bank employees deployed for counting cash donations at the temple, while Mr. Srivastava was in charge of the donation-counting process and Tinnu Yadav worked as a driver and 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.