'PM Worried About Broken System': Nripendra Mishra On Ram Temple Row

The allegations of theft of donation money at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya have left Prime Minister Narendra Modi worried, said Nripendra Mishra, a retired IAS officer who heads the Temple Construction Committee.

He revealed that the probe will be challenging for a special investigation team (SIT) because the CCTV footage had automatically been deleted. 

"I would say that the Prime Minister is worried. There are two types of worries. He is worried about the money of the devotees. He is also worried that this is a completely shabby system. It's a broken system. And how will he convert this broken system into a healthy system -- that is the big thing that he is looking for," he added.

He said the CCTV footage of the premises gets deleted after 45 days.

"CCTV footage has a period. The CCTV installed in the donation room has a total duration of 45 days. After 45 days, the CCTV footage will automatically be erased. You can say that before being erased, you could have converted it digitally, and you could have it in the archives," he said.

Also read: Ayodhya Ram Temple Donation Row: How Boxes, Bank Teams Track Funds

He explained the system of receipts.

"If you give your jewellery, you will get the receipt. It will be written in it. But the donations that are kept in front of God, in which people put their money, and some people put their rings, earrings... that is a field where there should be proper accounting," he said.

"If there is no proper accounting, there will be a doubt that this has happened. And then we will have to study it and develop it from a mathematical equation, what the trend was? What was the trend in 6 months? We will have to relate how many visitors came," he added.

The Uttar Pradesh government has formed an SIT to probe the matter. On Wednesday, the probe team questioned the trust's general secretary, Champat Rai, and administrator Gopal Rao.

Both Rai and Rao were questioned about the donation money, the arrangements inside the temple and the people linked with it, PTI reported.

Also read: "Significant Action": Ram Temple Committee Chief On Donation Row Probe Team

The SIT comprises Lucknow Divisional Commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, Inspector General (IG) Kiran S and Special Secretary, Finance, Neel Ratan.

The team inspected the room where jewellery received as a donation is kept. They questioned a trust worker, who is responsible for its management.

40 personnel associated with the trust, the State Bank of India and the collection agency count the donation cash. They work in two shifts.