The Special Investigation Team on Tuesday submitted its preliminary report to UP government in the case of theft of donation money in Ayodhya Ram Temple. The report does not name any top office bearer of the Trust for their involvement.
Trust secretary Champat Rai appeared in public on Tuesday at the flag hoisting ceremony of Sheshavatar Mandir along with other office bearers. None of them made any comment.
The questions which remain unanswered are: Why did those in the top management not know that donations were being stolen?
Why did the management remain silent when standard operating procedures for collection and counting of cash donations were being violated?
Why did the managers have no inkling about some of the counting staff carrying bundles of currency notes in their pockets?
Why did the management turn a blind eye to some of the counting staff building plush homes and buying shops and luxury sedans?
Why did the managers not trust the whistleblower when he disclosed that donation money was being pilfered?
Why did the office-bearers remain silent when cash was seized from homes and bank accounts?
Champat Rai requested the UP government to set up an SIT and he gave his statement, but I would like say: Picture Abhi Baaki Hai.
This is only a preliminary SIT report. The actual probe is yet to begin.
Who were the office-bearers who appointed their relatives as counting staff?
Who opposed the appointment of a CEO? Who kept the public sector Minting Corporation of India out of the picture?
Who concealed info about pilferage of money from Lord Ram’s donation boxes?
All these questions need answers and a detailed probe must be conducted.
Those who were part of the gang that committed sins must be brought to book.
I am surprised, Champat Rai stood inside the Ram Lala Durbar premises but did not speak about the pilferage of money. He prayed for the souls of those who died in the Lucknow fire tragedy, but did not pray to Lord Ram for punishing the sinners of the temple.
Coaching centers or death inferno?
After 15 youths lost their lives in the Gaming Zone fire tragedy in Lucknow, the owners of the building, the pet shop, Hoopers Gaming Zone and Animation Academy and an IT company have been arrested. Two others are absconding.
Four officials of Lucknow Development Authority, fire brigade and electricity department have been suspended. LDA has directed the owner to demolish his half-burnt building within 15 days.
It is painful to imagine the trauma that the families of the dead youths are going through presently. Yet, politicians in UP are engaged in allegations and counter-allegations.
I have checked the details. Notice was issued in 2016 to the building owner by LDA saying the building was illegal because a residential premise was being used as a commercial one.
No action was taken on the notice by officials in the next two months. The noting on the file says, all violations of byelaws have been corrected.
Akhilesh Yadav was the chief minister in 2016. Sending a notice and then putting it in a file does not make sense. It was clear that a residential premise was being used for commercial purposes. LDA officials were oblivious to this reality.
This is not the case of a Lucknow building alone. There are thousands of coaching centers being run across India in similar buildings, where there are no fire safety norms in place. Already, authorities are carrying out raids in UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat and other states.
A safety audit is being carried out in UP for all coaching centers. Kanpur Development Authority has sealed 15 such illegal commercial buildings.
India TV reporters went to coaching centers in Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Patna, Gorakhpur and other cities. In most of the centers, there were no safety norms in place.
Coaching centers mean no proper building, no emergency exit and no fire safety. These are merely money-making shops where scant attention is paid to the safety of students.
Coaching students live in unsafe conditions inside hostel buildings, where fire incidents take place and basements overflow with water during monsoon. Several students have died in such incidents.
A nationwide comprehensive safety audit of all coaching centers and student hostels needs to be done and guidelines must be prepared and enforced strictly by all state governments.
NEET Munnabhai : How MBBS students were caught?
An urgent e-mail to National Testing Agency and state police headquarters on Sunday blew the lid off an ingenious ‘Munnabhai’ racket in Lakhisarai, Bihar.
Nine MBBS students were caught impersonating real candidates even as the NEET re-exam was on.
The e-mail said, a BHU nursing student Poonam was impersonating a candidate named Madhupriya at the Kendriya Vidyalaya exam centre in Lakhisarai.
NTA and Bihar Police swung into action and Poonam spilled the beans. This led to the arrest of 9 MBBS students, some hailing from West Bengal, UP, Bihar and Odisha.
The modus operandi was simple. The local staff took biometric checks of candidates sitting inside a car, at a little distance from exam centers, and after biometric authentication was done, MBBS students were allowed to go inside as impersonators.
National Testing Agency had entrusted biometric authentication work to EDCIL, which, in turn, gave it to a company named Innovative View, which was already blacklisted by UP government in 2022 and by Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu governments in 2025.
This company paid Rs 500 to locals and engaged them for biometric checking. Some of these checkers took money and ensured access of 9 MBBS students to impersonate the candidates.
Till now, 30 persons, including 18 staff of the biometric company and a candidate have been arrested apart from the MBBS students.
The mastermind was an MBBS third year student from Patna medical college, Ashwini Kumar. He engaged other MBBS students from Jalpaiguri, Odisha, BHU, MP, Delhi and Bihar for impersonation.
Rs 60 lakh was collected from each NEET candidate, out of which Ashwini Kumar was to get Rs 25 lakhs. Two middlemen were also arrested.
Why did MBBS students, who were supposed to become doctors, took this gamble? Why did they spoil their careers?
I checked the background of some of the MBBS students. They hailed from poor and middle-class families.
The mastermind’s father is a farmer in Bihar. He had sold his land for his son’s medical education. His son had almost completely half of his education. He was lured by easy money and landed behind bars.