105 theft instances at Ram temple, BJP involved in wrongdoing: Akhilesh
Lucknow, Sep 22 (PTI) Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday alleged that the instances of theft of Ram temple offerings have increased to 105 in the initial investigation and accused the BJP of being involved in the wrongdoing while sharing a screenshot on social media of a headline of what appeared to be a news report.
"Even in the first superficial investigation into the theft of offerings at Ayodhya's Ram Temple, the figure has increased from 70 to 105," Yadav said on X, calling the incident "highly condemnable" and adding that the thefts were captured on CCTV cameras.
The SP's chief's allegation comes a day after the court-appointed Special Investigation Team probing the alleged embezzlement of donations informed the Supreme Court that it will file its first chargesheet on or before September 25.
Yadav, in his post in Hindi, also charged that the thefts amounted to the embezzlement of "religious funds" under government oversight and claimed that the involvement of BJP leaders and their associates was being discussed across Ayodhya.
He further alleged that devotees who had donated money for religious purposes had been betrayed, and said the issue had caused "deep hurt" among Sanatan followers.
Yadav also accused the BJP of losing public trust and said the alleged incident had brought disrepute to the party in Uttar Pradesh, the country and abroad.
The SP chief gave a political call against the BJP, saying the next election would be no less than a "war to save religion" and using the slogan: "Now there will be a Dharm Yudh against BJP."
The election to the 403-member UP Legislative Assembly is due in 2027.
The embezzlement of Ram temple donations came to light in the first week of June, following which the Uttar Pradesh government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) on June 13 to probe the allegations and was initially given 15 days to do so.
Following the submission of the preliminary SIT report on June 23, an FIR was registered on June 25 and eight accused -- Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Ramashankar Yadav alias Tinnu Yadav -- were arrested.
