NEW DELHI: The Ram Temple trust in Ayodhya has deployed a new team to count cash offerings from donation boxes and introduced a two-shift system under the supervision of the State Bank of India (SBI), even as an investigation continues into allegations of donation theft.The responsibility for counting the money collected from donation boxes installed inside the Ram Temple premises lies with the SBI.The exercise began on Sunday after the completion of a week-long trial, following which the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, which manages the temple, formally handed over the cash-counting process to SBI, PTI reported, citing sources.According to temple sources, 10 to 12 personnel have been assigned to each shift. The first shift runs from 8 am to 2 pm, while the second operates from 2 pm to 8 pm.The trust has appointed Shobhnath Mishra as the new in-charge of cash counting after his predecessor, Subhash Shrivastava, was sent to jail in connection with the alleged donation theft case.To strengthen monitoring, the trust has appointed four supervisors, including a former serviceman, to oversee the counting process.Trust security in-charge and former Army officer Captain KK Tiwari has been designated the senior in-charge and will be responsible for submitting daily reports on the exercise.Former defence personnel SP Dubey and Sheshmani Tiwari have also been appointed as trust representatives to supervise the cash-counting process.The alleged embezzlement of Ram Temple donations came to light in the first week of June, following which the Uttar Pradesh government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) on June 13 to investigate the matter.After the SIT submitted its preliminary report on June 23, an FIR was registered on June 25. Eight accused—Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Ramashankar Yadav alias Tinnu Yadav—were arrested.During the investigation, police recovered cash from several accused, with the highest recovery of Rs 20.39 lakh from Avinash Shukla. Authorities also seized gold, silver, foreign currency and a donation box marked “Ramrajya Kosh.”
