Ram Temple Embezzlement Escalated After the 2025 Kumbh Mela; Govt Blocks WhatsApp's New Usernames Feature; Tehran Invites BJP and Congress Presidents and Others to Khamenei's Funeral
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Snapshot of the day
July 1, 2026
Sidharth Bhatia
In a significant turn in the Ram Temple donation theft case, the Ayodhya Police probe has reportedly found that the alleged siphoning peaked during the Kumbh Mela in early 2025, when the temple saw a sharp surge in offerings. What allegedly began as petty theft before the Kumbh appears to have escalated into a larger, coordinated operation once donations began pouring in.
Investigators now believe the brother-in-law duo of Lavkush Mishra and Anukalp Mishra stole the largest share. Police say the two allegedly used the stolen money to buy properties, with more than half a dozen assets already traced to them. The probe has also brought some SBI employees under scrutiny.
But the scandal does not stop at the accused. Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust general secretary Champat Rai has reportedly told investigators that he knew about the pilferage of donations from the Ayodhya temple before the story broke into the public domain, but the bit that the custodians of the grand temple project would rather keep buried is that no First Information Report was filed immediately after this alleged discovery. “I came to know about the theft in May-end and started an internal inquiry immediately,” Rai was quoted as saying by The Telegraph. “Those involved in the theft were indirectly asked to stay away from the vault room without making them realise that we knew about their activities.” So the Trust knew, or at least Rai says he knew, but the police were not immediately brought in.
Faced with scrutiny over how people accused of siphoning off sacred donations landed in sensitive cash-counting roles, Rai has deflected sole accountability. As per Deccan Herald, he told SIT that the appointments were not his individual decision and that other Trust members were also involved. Accountability, like the missing donations, appears to have been distributed – leaving larger questions about how the Ram Mandir’s donation system was managed, who controlled access to it and who was ultimately responsible for the ‘institutional’ oversight.
The BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government has now given the SIT a 15-day extension. Meanwhile, Arjun Dev, the Radio Maintenance Officer at the Ram Temple, has been shunted out of his position and posted to Gorakhpur. Dev’s core responsibilities included monitoring the extensive CCTV camera network and the wireless communication systems, both of which are now under the scanner to determine how the theft continued for such a long period of time. Notably, Dev of the state police had been posted continuously in Ayodhya for the past 17 years before this sudden transfer.
The hiring pipeline is under scrutiny too. The
