- Champat Rai had resigned as the General Secretary of Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi Trust amid the donation theft row
- Bajrang Bagra, VHP International General Secretary, is a frontrunner to succeed Rai
- Bagra is a chartered accountant and former PSU head with expertise in governance and finance
The Ayodhya Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has accepted the resignation of Champat Rai, its General Secretary, who had stepped down amid the massive row over the siploning of donations to the temple.
Among the frontrunners to succeed Champat Rai is Bajrang Bagra, sources said.
Bagra is the International General Secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a chartered accountant and former head of PSU NALCO, and is seen as someone with the administrative and financial expertise to help professionalise the Trust's functioning.
According to sources, the idea is to bring in someone with a strong grasp of governance, finance and institutional administration as the Trust enters its next phase.
Sources also indicated that while Champat Rai is expected to continue as a trustee unless he chooses otherwise.
A final decision on the new General Secretary may not be announced immediately. The VHP's biannual national executive meeting is scheduled to be held in Delhi on July 19-20, where key organisational decisions, including transfers, are expected to be taken.
Champat Rai and trustee Anil Mishra submitted their resignations after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took a strong stance about the donation theft and the Special Investigating Team looking into the issue had submitted a preliminary report.
The report detailed how the temple staff put in charge of counting the cash donations stole money despite the installation of the CCT cameras, since the footage was not regularly checked. Reports suggest nearly Rs 7-7.5 crore is missing.
One of the eight people arrested in the case is Champat Rai's driver Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu Yadav.
Sources said Rai has told his close aides that Tinnu Yadav is the main character in the donation theft case. "Tinnu Yadav took advantage of his trust to carry out the fraud," Rai has told people close to him.
When he was about to get caught, he leaked information to a Samajwadi leader, sources said.
The other accused who are already in police net are Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lav Kush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, and Subhash Srivastava.
