- The petitioners have demanded a court-monitored investigation
- The Solicitor General told the court eight people have been arrested
- The next hearing will be on July 27
Hearing pleas on the alleged theft of donations at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the Chief Justice of India warned petitioners against politicising the issue. The Supreme Court bench also asked the Uttar Pradesh government whether the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which conducted the initial probe in the case, can be reconstituted.
The petitions have, among other things, sought a court-monitored CBI probe and audits of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, which runs and manages the temple.
During the hearing on Monday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the UP government, informed the bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana that a status report has been filed and eight people have been arrested.
"I cannot divulge much," Mehta said.
As the bench went through the status report, Justice Kant asked whether the investigation was being conducted by the SIT. Mehta responded that the initial vetting was done by the SIT and the case was now being probed by the police.
"An SIT was constituted to find out the truthfulness. Now it is being probed by the police. The SIT found that there is a cognizable offence," replied Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Uttar Pradesh government.
The bench then said the SIT can carry out the investigation and asked if it could be reconstituted with a senior officer.
Justice Kant also said the issue should not be politicised and the probe should be allowed to be carried out.
"We are only cautioning... don't politicise the issue. The investigation must be fair and taken to a logical conclusion," the Chief Justice said.
The bench said it would need three to four days to go through the status report and set the next date of hearing for July 27. "We will pass some directions then," it said.
After allegations of the theft surfaced, a First Information Report was registered in the case on June 25. Eight men were arrested, including Ramashankar Mishra, the former driver of trust general secretary Champat Rai.
Rai later resigned as the general secretary along with trustee Anil Mishra.
