Ram Temple Donation Theft Case: Bail Pleas of Two Accused Deferred, Hearing on October 6
Court to consider one bail application each on October 6 and 7; defence may approach Allahabad High Court if pleas are rejected.
AYODHYA (UP), Sep 30: The bail applications of two accused in the alleged Ram Temple donation theft case were deferred on Wednesday after the judge of the special Anti-Corruption Court went on leave.
Advocate Kul Shekhar Singh, who represents accused Subhash Srivastava and Ramashankar Yadav alias Tinnu Yadav, said the court of Judge Rajat Verma will take up their bail pleas on October 6 and 7.
Singh said one application will be heard on each of the two dates. Bail pleas filed by six other accused had earlier been considered by the special court but were rejected.
The lawyer said that if the court turns down the applications of Srivastava and Yadav, the defence will approach the Allahabad High Court’s Lucknow bench seeking bail for them and the other accused.
The defence team is also examining the recently filed charge sheet, which runs into nearly 70,000 pages and names 173 witnesses. Singh said the arguments on behalf of the accused would be based on their detailed examination of the document.
The charge sheet was submitted by a Supreme Court-mandated Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged misappropriation of cash and valuables donated by devotees at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
According to a senior police officer, investigators collected video evidence relating to 105 alleged instances of cash diversion during the counting of donations.
The case came to light after an FIR was registered on June 25 on the basis of a preliminary SIT report. Eight people were subsequently arrested, with most of them being bank employees assigned to count the donations.
Investigators have alleged that Srivastava was overseeing the counting operation, while Yadav, who worked as a driver, was associated with former Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust general secretary Champat Rai.
The prosecution has claimed that Rs 79.85 lakh of the suspected misappropriated amount was recovered during the investigation from all the accused except Srivastava.
The SIT charge sheet states that its probe found no evidence of cash being diverted during the subsequent transfer of the counted donations to banks.
The investigation relied on CCTV recordings from the counting centre, statements from witnesses, banking and financial documents, as well as findings from a forensic audit.
The special court rejected the bail applications of Avinash Shukla, Manish Kumar Yadav and Ram Shankar Mishra on September 21. The pleas of Anukalp Mishra, Lav Kush Mishra and Karunesh Pandey were rejected the following day.
