New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday informed the Supreme Court that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged financial irregularities in donations and offerings at the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya has substantially completed its investigation and will file the charge sheet within the next two days.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana was hearing a batch of petitions seeking a court-monitored investigation into alleged financial irregularities in the handling of donations and offerings received by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.
Appearing for the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta told the apex court that the status report had been submitted in a sealed cover.
SG Mehta also informed the CJI-led Bench that the deadline for filing the charge sheet expires on September 25 and said that the charge sheet would be filed within the next two days.
The Uttar Pradesh government further informed the Supreme Court that the investigation has been completed to a substantial extent and that the chargesheet would be filed before the competent court upon completion of the remaining formalities.
Taking the submission on record, the bench permitted the Sessions Judge concerned to pass an appropriate order in accordance with law.
The status report placed before the apex court also detailed the manner in which the SIT analysed CCTV footage and other material to identify the accused persons, besides examining records relating to donations and offerings.
According to the status report, analysis of CCTV footage revealed 105 incidents of theft of donations at the temple.
The status report also informed the top court that receipts for valuable items received as offerings are generated through software and that such valuables are kept in State Bank of India (SBI) lockers.
The latest developments come after the Supreme Court had directed the Uttar Pradesh government to reconstitute the SIT probing the alleged irregularities and ensure a fair, speedy and qualitative investigation.
At an earlier hearing, the Uttar Pradesh government had informed the apex court that the SIT had been reconstituted with senior IPS officers and had taken charge of the investigation. The reconstituted SIT is headed by Inspector General of Police Kiran S., with DIG Ayodhya Somen Verma and SSP Ayodhya Dr Gaurav Grover as members.
The Supreme Court had also indicated that a forensic auditor should be associated with the investigation in view of the allegations concerning the handling of trust funds.
The petitions before the Supreme Court seek a court-monitored investigation into alleged financial irregularities in the handling of donations and offerings received by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has also appointed Air Marshal Jeetendra Mishra (retd) as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), with the officer having assumed full charge of operations.
(IANS)
