Charity commissioner recommends action against temple trustees

The charity commissioner's office at Thane district in Maharashtra has recommended action against three trustees of the Vajreshwari temple trust here for alleged irregularities in the sale of its land and misappropriation of funds.

The temple's former chairman, Manoj Pradhan, was last year booked by the Ganeshpuri police here for allegedly misappropriating its funds to the tune of Rs 3.22 crore.

After the complaint was filed against him, the charity commissioner's office conducted an inspection and in its report issued last month, it said the temple trustees did not maintain a register of its assets, including land.

It said the three trustees - Avinash Raut, Kalpesh Patil and Manoj Pradhan - allegedly sold some temple land but failed to credit the proceeds to the trust fund.

Hence, it recommended that action be initiated against them under provisions of the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act.

The report also said that the temple trustees and other employees could not give information about how much land was owned by the trust and its properties facing encroachment.

The temple is situated in Vajreshwari town on the banks of Tansa river in the district.