Ram Mandir Donation Row: High Court Refuses To Entertain PIL For CBI Probe, Notes Similar Matter Already Reached SC
Sparsh Upadhyay
6 July 2026 2:02 PM IST
The Allahabad High Court today refused to entertain a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea seeking a CBI probe into the Ram Mandir donation row, noting a similar plea with similar prayers has already been filed before the Supreme Court.
A bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Manjive Shukla was hearing the petition filed by practising Advocate Mohit Ashok, seeking an independent, credible, and time-bound investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged "embezzlement of donation funds" (including monetary, gold, and silver) at the temple.
It also sought a comprehensive "special forensic audit" of the accounts of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).
Relying on a news report published by the national daily Dainik Jagran (on June 8), the PIL plea stated that money deposited by devotees into the donation boxes (daan-patra) at the Temple has been embezzled by certain employees of the Trust.
The petition pointed out that even though 4 suspect employees were taken into police custody and approximately ₹5 lakh was reportedly recovered from a bank account linked to a Trust employee, the respondent authorities are engaged in "institutional denial" rather than taking remedial action.
It may be noted that on June 13, the UP government constituted a 3-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) at the request of the temple trust, following allegations of misappropriation of donations received at the temple.
However, earlier, the Trust had denied allegations of misappropriation of donation funds. The trust had stated that all money and valuables offered by devotees are handled through established procedures that involve counting, verification, and secure deposit.
The SIT, headed by Lucknow Divisional Commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, also consists of Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kiran S and Special Secretary (Finance Department) Neel Ratan as members.
On June 25, an FIR was lodged in Ayodhya based on a complaint from Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Trust against 8 individuals and unknown persons, including Ramashankar Yadav alias Tinnu, Manish Yadav, Luvkush Mishra, Karunesh Pandey, Rama Shankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava, Anukalp Mishra and Avinash Shukla on charges of embezzlement, fraud, criminal conspiracy and breach of trust over missing donations in the Ram Temple Trust.
On July 3, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP from Buxar, Sudhakar Singh, moved the Supreme Court seeking an independent probe into the finances of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, citing recent allegations of financial irregularities, an ongoing Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe, and the reported recovery of a cash trail amounting to ₹77 lakh.
