NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court on Monday closed its monitoring of the alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, after the Uttar Pradesh government informed the bench that a Special Investigation Team had filed a chargesheet against eight accused.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana disposed of the writ petitions and directed the judicial magistrate to proceed in accordance with law. The court clarified it had expressed no opinion on the merits of the allegations, so that neither prosecution nor defence can claim the apex court has pre-judged the issue.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, told the bench that the alleged theft occurred during the counting stage, stating: "Individuals who were counting have taken the money." The SIT investigation uncovered 105 instances of unauthorized removal of cash from the donation-counting room at the Pilgrim Facilitation Centre within the temple premises. The probe traced the allegedly stolen funds to property purchases and bank deposits, including a sale deed recording a payment of Rs 15 lakh when the property was worth around Rs 50 lakh.
Following an audit, all artefacts and chadhavas (offerings) donated by devotees were found intact, showing that the money was moved by people involved in the counting process. The SIT examined 173 witnesses, including temple functionaries, donation-counting personnel, bank officials, security staff, CCTV operators, chartered accountants and vendors. The investigation also physically verified 803 valuable articles for which receipts had been generated through the temple trust's software and another 86 articles for which receipts were not available, finding no discrepancy in the reconciliation.
Around 944.411 kg of silver sent for melting to the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd was also verified by the SIT. The investigation examined specific donations referred to in media reports, including 200 kg and 38.288 kg silver bricks, a silver necklace, a pair of charan paduka and a donated copy of the Ramcharitmanas.
The first SIT, headed by Lucknow divisional commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, had submitted its final report in August flagging gross lapses in the functioning of the temple trust while exonerating two of its top former functionaries. The Supreme Court subsequently constituted a second SIT, headed by Lucknow range inspector general of police Kiran S, to independently investigate the allegations.
The controversy surfaced on June 7, 2026 when Samajwadi Party leader Tej Narayan 'Pawan' Pandey alleged that donations worth ₹5 crore to ₹7.5 crore had been siphoned off from the temple offerings. The state government constituted an SIT on June 13, 2026, following which eight employees associated with the handling and counting of donations were arrested on June 26.
The court permitted petitioners to assist the judicial magistrate as victims of crime would, given the element of public interest involved. The bench directed the magistrate to apply his mind to the chargesheet, decide on taking cognizance, summoning accused and framing charges.
