Ayodhya, Sep 24 The hearing on the bail applications of two accused in the alleged Ram Temple donation embezzlement case, scheduled for Thursday, was deferred to Friday after their lawyer sought time to study the recently filed chargesheet, which runs to around 70,000 pages, a senior police officer said.
Advocate Kul Shekhar Singh, representing the two accused — Subhash Srivastava and Ramashankar alias Tinnu Yadav — told PTI he sought Friday’s date as the chargesheet had now been filed and he wanted to study its contents before making arguments on the bail pleas.
He also cited changes in the charges against the accused, with two sections having been dropped by police. Both accused will appear before the court through video-conferencing from the local jail on Friday, Singh said.
The chargesheet, filed by the Supreme Court-mandated Special Investigation Team (SIT), is around 70,000 pages long and lists 173 witnesses, while investigators have recovered video evidence relating to 105 instances of alleged cash theft or diversion during the counting of donations, a senior police officer told PTI on Thursday.
Details of the chargesheet and the evidence will be presented before the court at the next hearing, the officer said.
The case concerns allegations that cash donations of devotees at the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple were allegedly siphoned off during the counting process.
The SIT’s investigation has not found evidence of pilferage during the subsequent transfer of counted money to banks, according to the chargesheet.
The investigation relied on CCTV footage from the cash-counting facility, witness statements, banking and financial records and a forensic audit.
Investigators also examined records relating to donated valuables and found no discrepancy involving more than 800 such articles, according to the chargesheet.
Eight people were arrested after an FIR was registered on June 25 on the basis of a preliminary SIT report. The arrested are Tinnu Yadav, Anukalp Mishra, Avinash Shukla, Karunesh Pandey, Manish Yadav, Lavkush Mishra, Ramashankar Mishra and Subhash Srivastava.
Most of the accused are bank employees deployed for counting donations. Srivastava was allegedly supervising the counting process, while Tinnu Yadav worked as a driver and was a close aide of former Trust general secretary Champat Rai.
The prosecution has said Rs 79.85 lakh allegedly linked to the suspected embezzlement was recovered during the investigation from all accused except Srivastava. The accused have been booked for criminal breach of trust and offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
A special court had earlier rejected the bail pleas of three accused — Avinash Shukla, Manish Kumar Yadav and Ram Shankar Mishra — on Monday, followed by rejection of applications of Anukalp Mishra, Lav Kush Mishra and Karunesh Pandey on Tuesday.
The bail pleas of Srivastava and Tinnu Yadav are now scheduled to come up on Friday.
(PTI News)
