Ram Temple donation row: Police case filed against 8 people

2 min readLucknowUpdated: Jun 25, 2026 09:14 PM IST

The allegations centre on cash and jewellery donated by devotees going unaccounted for at the temple. (Express Photo by Vishal Srivastav)

An FIR was registered on Thursday against eight persons on charges of theft, misappropriation of cash, valuables, embezzlement of funds and valuables at the Ram temple in Ayodhya, police said.

The development comes two days after the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Uttar Pradesh government to probe the matter submitted its preliminary report.

Additional Director General (ADG), Lucknow Zone, Praveen Kumar, said the case was registered at the Kotwali Ramjanmabhoomi police station in Ayodhya on the complaint of Krishna Mohan, a member of the Ramjanmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.

Among the accused named in the FIR are Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu Yadav, an associate of Trust general secretary Champat Rai, and Lavkush Mishra and Anukalp Mishra. Lavkush and Anukalp are among the four persons involved in the counting of cash and valuables received as donations at the temple.

Yadav, a former driver of Champat Rai, was looking after the inside management of the temple functioning since the shrine’s consecration ceremony in 2022, an official said.

The three-member SIT comprising Lucknow Divisional Commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, Lucknow Range IG Kiran S and Finance Department Special Secretary Neel Ratan, had handed over the preliminary report to the Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister, Sanjay Prasad, on Tuesday morning. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is believed to have gone through the report on Thursday morning.

Bhupendra Pandey is the Resident Editor of the Lucknow edition of The Indian Express. With decades of experience in the heart of Uttar Pradesh’s journalistic landscape, he oversees the bureau’s coverage of India’s most politically significant state. His expertise lies in navigating the complex intersections of state governance, legislative policy, and grassroots social movements. From tracking high-stakes assembly elections to analyzing administrative shifts in the Hindi heartland, Bhupendra’s reportage provides a definitive lens on the region's evolution.

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Ayodhya Ram temple

Ram temple

Uttar Pradesh