'Chori To Hui Hai': Ram Mandir Trust Admits Theft, Champat Rai Out | 10 Big Takeaways

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust — the body that runs one of India's most-watched temples and manages thousands of crores of rupees that devotees have poured into it — met in Ayodhya on Monday (July 6) to confront the worst crisis of its short life: an admission that money offered by the faithful was not being counted honestly.It came weeks after an alleged embezzlement in the donation - counting system set off a police investigation, eight arrests, and the exit of the Trust's two most senior figures – General Secretary Champat Rai and Trustee Anil Mishra. On Monday, the Trust's treasurer, Swami Govind Dev Giri, put the uncomfortable truth on record: "चोरी हुई है, यह सत्य है" (A theft has taken place — that is the truth), adding

that it was now for the SIT to find out who did it, how, and who else was involved. Against that admission, the Trust cleared the resignations, confirmed action in the case, opened a search for a professional chief executive, and — for the first time — laid its finances out in plain numbers.

Top 10 Developments

1. Why did the trustees meet?The meeting centred on the irregularity found in counting the temple's donation-box money, the investigation into it, the two resignations, the media debate around them, and how the Trust will run in the interim.2. Champat Rai and Anil Mishra: Resignations acceptedGeneral Secretary Champat Rai stepped down on moral grounds after the investigation team's initial report, and trustee Anil Mishra resigned on the same grounds. Both resignations were placed before the meeting and accepted in the interest of a fair probe — leaving Rai out of the Trust's active responsibilities.3. Krishna Mohan takes interim chargeUntil a new General Secretary is appointed, trustee Krishna Mohan has been asked to carry out the General Secretary's duties. He has accepted the role.4. Gopal Rao removed from the TrustThe Trust cut Gopal Rao loose entirely – ending the special invitations under which he had attended meetings and separating him from all Trust responsibilities and connected work.5. The treasurer draws a lineTreasurer Swami Govind Dev Giri distanced himself sharply, saying there was "not even a single brick" in his name. Money that reached the Trust's account was his responsibility, he said — but money that never reached it was down to the members and officials who ran the system.6. What the SIT foundThe Trust said it had asked the Uttar Pradesh government for an impartial probe once the irregularity came to light, and the state set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT). The preliminary report threw up eight names; cases were filed against those with prima facie evidence, and arrests followed. The Trust says the case is now proceeding as per law, and the guilty should get the strictest punishment. The SIT's net has since widened to whether stolen gold and silver was melted down to hide the trail.7. Committee to pick the new CEOThe Trust has formed a three-member committee to select a suitable Chief Executive Officer. It comprises Justice (Retd.) Pramod Kohli, Lieutenant General (Retd.) Vishnukant Chaturvedi and Suresh Hawde.8. The money trail, in numbersThe Trust said it received Rs 3,264 crore through the fund-donation campaign and corpus donations, of which Rs 2,370 crore has gone into construction and capital expenditure. Separately, offerings of Rs 582 crore came in until March 31, 2026, of which Rs 391 crore was spent on running costs. The rest, it said, is sitting in bank accounts.9. Gifts in kind — and melted silverBeyond cash, devotees gave 2,926 offerings in kind, all logged in a register and verified yearly by an independent chartered accountant. Silver items were melted into bars at the Government of India Mint, with purity and weight certificates on record. Devotees can book a slot with a Trust official and come to Ayodhya to verify their own offering.10. A pushback and a reassuranceThe Trust said it was "hurt and concerned" by the irregularity and expressed grave regret. It accused some people of using the episode to weaken the temple and Hindu faith with "baseless allegations" and urged anyone with real evidence to hand it to the SIT rather than air it publicly. The flow of devotees for darshan, it added, remains undiminished. One such allegation has already come undone: a gold-plated Ramcharitmanas worth around Rs 5 crore, donated by former Union Home Secretary S Lakshminarayan and alleged to have gone missing, was traced within the temple complex and put back on display — with the donor saying his “faith had been restored”.

How The Case Broke

The scandal surfaced in early June, when an alleged theft in the counting of donation-box money came to light — reportedly months after SBI had recommended replacing the outsourced counting staff, a change that allegedly never happened. The Trust asked the Uttar Pradesh government to step in; an SIT was set up in mid-June, and on June 25 police filed an FIR under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita on the complaint of trustee Krishna Mohan, the man now holding interim charge. Eight people were arrested and sent to judicial custody, with close to Rs 80 lakh recovered, even as opposition parties demand the probe reach the "big names" and several petitioners move the courts for a CBI or judicially monitored inquiry. For a Trust that counts its donations in thousands of crores, the harder audit is the one it now owes the devotees who filled its coffers.