Overview
- The Uttar Pradesh government set up a Special Investigation Team after alleged counting and donation irregularities at the Ayodhya Ram Temple surfaced, and an FIR filed on June 25 led to the arrest of eight people linked to donation counting.
- The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust accepted resignations from general secretary Champat Rai and trustee Anil Mishra as the criminal probe continued and questions mounted about the trust’s governance.
- The Congress has launched a nationwide campaign calling for a Supreme Court‑monitored CBI investigation, a forensic audit of temple funds, and reconstitution or dissolution of the Trust to ensure independent oversight.
- Ruling party leaders, including Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath and Maharashtra deputy CM Eknath Shinde, have defended the investigations while using the issue to attack opponents and point to alleged problems at other temple trusts such as Mumbai’s Siddhivinayak.
- The controversy has sharpened scrutiny of how major temple trusts are appointed and supervised, highlighted exemptions from routine transparency rules, and is likely to be raised in Parliament’s monsoon session with wider calls for published SIT findings and stronger oversight.