Champat Rai, the general secretary of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, resigned on Friday hours after an FIR was filed against eight staff members of Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Another Trust member, Anil Mishra has also resigned. Most of the eight staff members named in the FIR were close associates of both Champat Rai and Anil Mishra. Two of them have been arrested by police and produced before a local court. The Special Investigation Team could only find CCTV footage of temple donation counting for only 45 days.
According to reports, video footage recovered till now show some of the accused pocketing currency notes inside the counting room at least 70 times. Several of the accused have confessed having stolen donation money, while some of them have returned ill-gotten cash to the Trust. The key person among the eight named in FIR is Ramshanker alias Tinnu Yadav, who was working as Champat Rai’s driver. Other named in FIR include Lavkush Mishra and Anukalp Mishra, Karunesh Pandey, Subhash Srivastava, Avinash Shukla, Manish Yadav and Ramashankar Mishra.
Champat Rai, the general secretary, had entrusted most of the managerial duty to Tinnu Yadav, a former auto driver and a son of a tea seller. Tinnu Yadav had the keys to all the boxes in which donation money was kept. He played a deciding role in hiring people for the temple and was also allocating counting duty. Tinnu Yadav owns more than Rs 50 crore worth properties in Ayodhya and Lucknow. He owns a plush residence and several costly sedans. He also used to decide where to post security personnel inside the temple premises.
Manish Yadav, named in the FIR, is Tinnu Yadav’s nephew. Tinnu had appointed him in the donation counting team. Champat Rai showed gross negligence in running the affairs of the temple. He turned a blind eye to all complaints of pilferage and took no action against the culprits. His role needs to be thoroughly probed.
Anil Mishra, the trust member who resigned, owns a plush residence in Ayodhya and his personal property increased several times in the past five years. He was in charge of counting of donation money. The question arises: how people involved in counting of donation became rich overnight? How many of them acquired plush buildings, shops, cars and iPhones after Ram Mandir was consecrated on January 22, 2024?
Is any doubt still left about pilferage of donation money? Who were the ‘uncles’ and ‘nephews’ of these looters? Common people in Ayodhya know who they are. They also know who were assigned the task of counting money. But the FIR only names eight persons. All those employed in the counting process have been changed overnight. Yet, the fact remains: those top guns, who were supposed to keep a watch, occupied their posts in the Trust, till this morning. When will the probe begin into the role of top guns?
They were the ones who gathered this gang of looters and worked on a daily basis by issuing ‘parchi’ (hand written note). When will they be named in the FIR? Already, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent organization is worried and Vishwa Hindu Parishad is shocked. Who are the forces who are trying to shield these top guns who were working on the basis of ‘parcha’ and ‘kharcha’?
These top guns cannot go unscathed by saying that it was the Trust which filed the FIR and it was because of them that the stealers were caught and they are themselves innocent. In Hindi, there is a saying, ‘Chor Machaye Shor’ (the thief shouts the loudest). Until action is taken against the top guns of the Trust, this sin cannot be washed off.
Polygamy : Shariat cannot replace Constitution in India
During the debate on Uniform Civil Code in Maharashtra Assembly, Sana Malik, NCP(Ajit) MLA spoke in favour of Shariat laws in India for the Muslim community. She said, since Pakistan was being mentioned in the context of polygamy allowed in Shariat, a narrative is sought to be created that only Muslims indulge in polygamy.
Sana Malik said, laws have been enacted according to Shariat in Pakistan, and the same could be done in India too, because Muslims follow the Holy Quran, and if laws are made on the basis of Shariat, Muslims will welcome it. Ruling BJP and ally Shiv Sena (Shinde) opposed the idea. Minister of State for Home Yogesh Kadam said, laws will be enacted in India only in accordance with the Constitution and not the Shariat. Later Sana Malik clarified that she did not ask for enacting Shariat in India. She said, she had only told members not to cite the example of Pakistan to Indian Muslims.
Polygamy is banned in several Muslim countries. Polygamy is not allowed in Turkey and there are stringent laws relating to polygamy in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Malaysia and Egypt. Sana Malik is the daughter of Nawab Malik, who has no love lost for BJP. The ruling party had opposed his inclusion in NCP (Ajit Pawar), an ally.
When BJP MLA Devyani Pharande mentioned Pakistan during the debate, Sana Malik pitched in and tried to score brownie points. The ground reality is: In India, no law can be enacted merely on the basis of religion.
Bhagwant Mann : ‘Masking’ the truth?
Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann is coming up with new arguments daily to clarify his position over the disputed video, in which a man is shown committing a blasphemous act against Sikh Gurus. On Thursday, Bhagwant Mann claimed he was not the man shown in the video. He said some other person wearing a mask resembling him did this and the video was shot.
As proof, the Chief Minister showed a video in which a man was trying to put on a mask resembling him. Since eyes cannot remain hidden, the man was wearing dark glasses. Mann said, he has surgery incision marks on his neck, but these are not visible in the disputed video. Till now, we have been watching in movies how villains used to wear the hero’s mask to abduct the heroine.
In real life, we are hearing how a man acted wearing a mask resembling Bhagwant Mann, and that too, 16 years ago, when the latter was a comedian and not a politician. Did the actor wearing the mask know that Bhagwant Mann would one day become the Chief Minister of Punjab and a controversy can be created?
I think there may be some dark secret hidden somewhere. Secondly, if the video was fake and the man was acting while wearing a mask, why didn’t this fact come out during forensic test? And the test was done at a forensic lab that didn’t exist? There is now evidence that some Punjab Police officers got the ‘forensic test’ done, which turned out to be fake. There is some dark truth hidden in this forensic test too.