The temple, the trust and the theft: Ram Mandir ‘scam’ explained

The controversy has only reignited conversations around the temple and BJP politicisation of the issue in the 90s.

Ram Mandir, the Sangh Parivar’s most totemic project in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya, one that received the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) direct and sustained public endorsement, is now under major scrutiny over allegations of theft of donations from the temple trust.

The controversy has reignited long-running questions about the temple’s construction and the BJP’s decades-long politicisation of the issue.

In the shadow of the Babri Masjid

The site has a fraught history. Mir Baqi, a commander in the Mughal army, built the Babri Masjid in 1528 during the reign of the emperor Babur. It stood without serious dispute for over three centuries, until 1853, when a Hindu sect claimed that a temple had been demolished to make way for the mosque. This was the first recorded instance of violence at the site. 

Six years later, the British colonial administration stepped in and physically divided the site into two sections, one for Hindus and one for Muslims.

The issue lay dormant again until 1949, when the Congress government declared the site “disputed property” and idols of Rama and Sita were installed inside the structure, still a mosque at the time. Hindu devotees began visiting, no Muslim prayers have been offered there since and the Hindu community’s claim that the site was the birthplace of the deity Ram, making it the Ram Janmabhoomi, hardened into a political force.

What followed were decades of violence, communal tension and the systematic mobilisation of Hindutva organisations, including the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The BJP’s LK Advani brought it to a national boil in 1990 with his Ram Rath Yatra, a cross-country chariot procession that brought the party to nationwide prominence and flooded Ayodhya with karyakartas and kar sevaks who joined voluntarily on ideological grounds. 

On the eve of the mosque’s demolition, photographer Praveen Jain captured right-wing Hindu activists on the site rehearsing the destruction, an image that became one of the most chilling documents of what was to come.

The Babri Masjid was demolished by a mob on December 6, 1992. Years of legal battles followed, culminating in the Supreme Court’s 2019 ruling that the disputed land be handed to a trust for the construction of a Ram temple. 

The following year, the government established the Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust – the body that has now come under public scrutiny over claims of financial mismanagement.

How the controversy surfaced

The controversy first came to light in June 2021, when Opposition politicians, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, leaked official land registry documents to the media. The paperwork exposed a highly suspicious property deal near the temple site in Ayodhya. Real estate middlemen had bought a plot of land for Rs 2 crore and resold it to the trust just 10 minutes later for Rs 18.5 crore.

On June 16, 2021, a former temple staffer, Santosh Dubey, lodged a complaint at the Ram Janmabhoomi police station over the alleged embezzlement of trust funds. It was Mahipal Singh, who had previously been in charge of the trust’s accounts team, who had first flagged similar concerns internally. Singh claimed he was removed from his position after raising questions about the handling of funds, including donations and precious metals. The issue grew into a national scandal after Yadav publicly condemned the alleged theft from the temple’s collection boxes.

Arrests, denials and a resignation

The Trust’s general secretary, Champat Rai, formerly a VHP functionary who also played a role in the 1992 Ram Temple movement and has been with the RSS since 1981, has emerged as the central figure in the current phase of the controversy. His tenure has been marked by allegations of suspicious land deals, questionable procurement of construction materials and, now, irregularities in donations.

Since the claims surfaced on June 7, a first information report (FIR) has been registered on the basis of a preliminary report submitted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government. Eight persons associated with the temple’s donation process have been arrested, the investigation remains ongoing, and investigators have so far recovered Rs 79.85 lakh.

Rai has denied any role in the embezzlement and handed in his resignation, citing moral responsibility, though it has not been accepted. On Friday, July 3, he told close associates that his “service in Ayodhya is complete” and that he did not want to continue under the “stigma” of the allegations.

Political storm erupts

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not made a public statement on the issue, senior BJP leader and former MP Vinay Katiyar said he has spoken directly to Modi about the donation theft and that he “expressed concern over the issue and sought my views on what would happen next.” Katiyar said he told the Prime Minister that “everything would be fine,” adding that former trust office-bearers Champat Rai and Anil Mishra and temple official Gopal Rao “may have escaped going to jail for now, but who knows may later still go.” 

He also said the sanctity of the Ram temple must be upheld regardless of the investigation, and that no wrongdoing on the issue could be accepted.

The Opposition has used the controversy to go on the offensive. Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray announced a “Ram Raksha” agitation beginning Sunday, July 5, in Maharashtra, calling on people to gather at the Hanuman temple in Dadar, central Mumbai, to hold the BJP accountable for what he called the “theft” at the Ram temple.

Thackeray said many Hindus, including members of the undivided Shiv Sena, had participated in the Ram temple movement and endured hardships, including atrocities on karsevaks, the Godhra train burning, the Ahmedabad riots and the Mumbai serial bomb blasts. He alleged the BJP had politically capitalised on all of these events and was now enjoying “unchecked power,” and asked whether it was now running an “Operation Ram Mandir.”

RSS demands accountability, but with caveats

RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale said the alleged theft had “deeply hurt” the sentiments and faith of the entire society and called for strict punishment for anyone found guilty after the investigation. 

In the same breath, however, he warned that “anti-Hindu and anti-national forces” were seeking to exploit “this unfortunate incident” to malign Hindu dharma, and urged Hindus to show “patience and restraint” to thwart such “conspiracies.”

“We are confident that through proper financial management, flawless and transparent operational systems, and an atmosphere imbued with purity, sanctity and true dharmikta, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust will continue to strengthen the faith and trust of the Hindu society,” Hosabale said.

The investigation continues.