NEW DELHI: Indian police are investigating allegations of embezzlement at the Ram Mandir temple in Uttar Pradesh, a site that has been a focal point of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-first politics, a top state official has said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced that a Special Investigations Team had been set up to look into syphoning of cash offerings made by devotees at the temple, which was inaugurated in 2024 with great fanfare by Modi himself.
“We have set up a SIT inquiry on the recommendation of the trust that administers the temple,” said Adityanath, a firebrand Hindu monk, at a public function. “If anyone has any documentary proof, please provide it to the SIT”.
The scale of the embezzlement is unclear, but opposition parties and local media reports say it could amount to more than $20 million. The temple’s construction cost an estimated $240 million, all of which was sourced entirely from public donations.
According to The Indian Express newspaper, daily offerings from devotees average around $10,000, going up to $60,000 on auspicious days. The SIT has begun questioning trust functionaries and examining CCTV surveillance systems and security arrangements.
The temple stands on grounds where the Babri Mosque stood for centuries before being torn down by Hindu zealots in 1992. The destruction helped propel the BJP, and eventually Modi, to power, displacing the secularist Congress party that had governed India almost without interruption since independence.
