NEW DELHI: A corruption probe into donations at India’s grand Ram temple in Ayodhya has renewed concerns over the handling of vast amounts of cash, gold and other offerings made by devotees at major religious sites.
Police launched an investigation in June and arrested eight people responsible for handling donations at the revered Hindu shrine in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Authorities have not officially disclosed the amount stolen, but Indian media reports suggest the suspected fraud could be worth around 30 million rupees, or nearly $314,000.
The case has caused anger among devotees who see temple donations as an act of faith.
Ashok Prasad Kushwaha, an auto-rickshaw driver in Delhi who has visited the Ram temple three times in the past two years, said ordinary people donate from their hard-earned income believing the money will be used for religious work.
“When we donate, we believe the money is going for God’s work,” he said. “Now if that hard-earned money gets stolen from a place like a temple, it feels like personal loss.”
The scandal is the latest in a series of cases involving misuse of donations at major Indian pilgrimage sites, including the Badrinath shrine and Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, one of the world’s richest temple trusts.
The Tirumala Tirupati trust is estimated to have assets worth about $31 billion, highlighting the enormous financial scale on which some religious institutions operate.
Experts say the controversy has exposed a wider problem: India’s religious institutions often manage huge volumes of money but lack modern systems of financial transparency and independent oversight.
“The core systemic problem is the lack of transparency and accountability,” said Rahul Easwar, a Hindu activist and grandson of a former chief priest of Kerala’s Sabarimala temple.
He said large religious institutions need stronger controls, including mandatory receipts, digital accounting, CCTV monitoring of donation handling and independent audits.
According to reports, the accused in the Ram temple case exploited weak counting procedures and gaps in surveillance.
The Ram temple was inaugurated in 2024 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has since become one of India’s most prominent religious sites, attracting an average of nearly 90,000 visitors every day.
Devotees offer cash, gold, silver ornaments and other valuables, creating a continuous flow of donations.
The allegations are especially sensitive because the temple stands on a site linked to one of India’s longest-running and most divisive religious disputes.
In 1992, Hindu mobs demolished the Babri mosque at the site, triggering nationwide violence that killed more than 2,000 people.
In 2019, India’s Supreme Court awarded the disputed land for construction of the temple, paving the way for a nationwide fundraising campaign.
According to the temple trust, the campaign raised around $341 million.
Legal experts say India has no uniform national framework to ensure consistent financial transparency across all religious institutions, as they operate under different laws and tax systems.
Political analyst Anurag Naidu said temples handling huge donations now need institutional safeguards similar to major public bodies.
“Religious institutions have grown far beyond traditional places of worship,” he said. “They need institutional systems with financial controls and independent oversight.”
