Ayodhya Ram temple donation row: SIT chargesheet filed, UP govt tells SC

The Supreme Court on Monday took note of the Uttar Pradesh government's submission that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has filed a chargesheet in the Ayodhya Ram temple donations embezzlement case, and disposed of petitions, saying the local court will proceed with the trial.

Appearing for the UP government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana that the SIT probe found that donations at the temple were embezzled during the counting process.

Mehta said some of the accused have invested in properties while others have kept the embezzled amount in banks as deposits.


The bench took on record the submissions, permitted the writ petitioners, who approached the top court for an independent probe into the misappropriation of the donations, to assist the Ayodhya local court in the trial of the Ram temple fund embezzlement case.

It disposed of the petitions, saying that the court has not expressed any opinion on the merits of the Ram Temple donation embezzlement case.

The top court also refused to entertain a fresh plea to determine if the Ram temple stands on land adjudicated in the main Ayodhya dispute case.

On September 21, the court-appointed Special Investigation Team probing the alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya informed the court that it will file its first chargesheet on or before September 25.