3 min readLucknowUpdated: Jun 30, 2026 01:56 AM IST
All the eight accused arrested in the alleged Ram Temple donation theft and embezzlement case were on Monday produced here before the designated Prevention of Corruption Act court, which sent them to 14-day judicial custody.
The accused – Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu, Lavkush Mishra, Anukalp Mishra, Ramashankar Mishra, Avinash Shukla, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey and Subhash Srivastav — were produced before the court from jail through video-conferencing. The police avoided bringing the accused to the court in view of the security reasons, an official informed.
Circle Officer (CO), Ayodhya, Ashutosh Tiwari, told The Indian Express, “We have not filed any application before the court for police custody remand of the accused, so far.”
Earlier on Friday, the eight accused were arrested and produced before the magistrate court which had sent them to jail for three days.
Sources informed, a police team, led by the investigating officer, on Monday visited the bank branch and met the employees supervising the collection and counting of the money donated at the Ram Temple, and depositing them to the branch. The police collected all digital records of the bank account of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, dating back to when it officially opened an account in the branch to manage all money and valuables received as donation at the temple.
The police team also has instructed the senior bank officials to ensure that the bank employees concerned stay in Ayodhya and report to the police whenever summoned.
A senior police official informed The Indian Express that in the first phase of the investigation, the police team is focusing on the crime part of the case, as to how the alleged theft began, who laid his hands on the donation money, and how many employees — including those involved in the counting work, banking service, security system and otherwise — were allegedly responsible for siphoning off the money.
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The police team has reportedly been instructed to first nab all the accused and make all efforts to seize as much cash and valuables while making arrests. A detailed investigation of the assets connected to the stolen money would be done after that. The investigating team also has been asked to keep the documents related to the theft, seizure and the accused accurate, as the case may be transferred to some other investigating agency in the state or centre, the sources said.
On Sunday, the police conducted searches at the houses of all the eight accused. The police earlier said they recovered Rs 79.8 lakh from seven of the eight arrested men during the investigation. No cash or valuables were recovered from Srivastav.
Meanwhile on Monday, the Ayodhya Bar Association also announced they would boycott representing any of the accused in the theft case.
