Ayodhya Case

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram temple here will conduct a re-audit of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust's accounts for the past five years after the preliminary probe indicated large-scale irregularities, sources said on Friday. The re-audit will cover construction-related expenditure as well as jewellery and other gold and silver items received as donations, the sources said. The SIT will carry out a detailed scrutiny of the Trust's financial records for the entire five-year period, the sources said. In another development, the Ayodhya Police questioned key accused Avinash Shukla after taking him into custody. Shukla, who was involved in donation-counting work, was arrested earlier in the case, and a local court on Thursday granted his police custody for 24 hours. Police sources said Shukla, from whose possession the highest cash recovery in the case has been made so far, is facing intensified legal ...

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the BJP, Bajrang Dal and VHP over the alleged embezzlement of Ram Temple donations and dubbed them as "farzi Hindus" who had "looted" Lord Ram. Sibal, a senior advocate, alleged that the organisations sought votes in the name of Lord Ram. In a post on X, Sibal said, "VHP, BJP, Bajrang Dal -- 'Ram ke naam pe vote to leinge, fir Ram ko hi woh looteinge (They will seek votes in the name of Ram and then loot Ram himself)." "Asli Hindu ye kya jaane, ye to farzi Hindu hain (What do they know of real Hindus, they are fake Hindus)," the Independent Rajya Sabha MP said. The alleged embezzlement came to light after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government submitted its preliminary findings, following which an FIR was registered on June 25. Eight accused were subsequently arrested, and police said nearly Rs 80 lakh in cash, besides some foreign currency, has been recovered so far from s

The Ayodhya Development Authority (ADA) has served a notice to the wife of Ram temple donation theft accused Lavkush Mishra over the alleged unauthorised construction of a house under her name, as the police intensified their investigation into the alleged embezzlement case, official and police sources said on Thursday. According to ADA sources, the house under construction is located in Banvirpur village in Sohawal tehsil. The land was purchased in the name of Lavkush Mishra's wife, Supriya Mishra, and the construction was undertaken without obtaining the mandatory approval from the development authority. Police sources said investigators also searched Lavkush Mishra's residence on Wednesday and questioned his family members as part of the ongoing probe. Investigators may tighten the legal proceedings against accused Avinash Shukla, from whose possession the highest cash recovery in the case has been made so far, police sources indicated. According to police sources, cash recoveri

The alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya has snowballed into a major controversy, with an SIT probe finding lapses in the shrine's donation management system and eight people associated with the counting of cash and valuables being arrested. Here is a look at what the investigation has found so far: While the details of how the donations were siphoned and exactly how much are still under investigation, the special investigation team (SIT) has pointed to some major lapses in its preliminary report. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) like deploying a security guard during a counting process, frisking of personnel while entering and leaving the counting room, and preserving CCTV footage of the donation-counting process for 180 days were violated, sources said, citing the findings of the report. In violation of rules, Ramashankar Yadav alias Tinnu Yadav, the former driver of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust general secretary Champat Rai, held key

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday said action against those accused in the alleged embezzlement of donations received at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya began immediately after the SIT submitted its report, asserting that those found guilty would not be spared. Addressing a public meeting in Deoria, Adityanath reiterated his warning against hurting people's faith. "Ayodhya is a symbol of the faith of all of us and of Sanatan Dharma. Do not cast an evil eye on Ayodhya. Learn to uphold the dignity of Lord Ram. We had said an SIT had been constituted and that action would begin as soon as its report was received," Adityanath said, recalling his remarks in Ayodhya on June 19. "The SIT report came and action started immediately. I assure you that, as I had said, we will separate truth from falsehood," he said. The chief minister said no one would be allowed to play with public faith and warned of strict action against anyone found guilty. "Playing with public sentiment i

The Special Investigation Team probing allegations of embezzlement of donations given to the Ram temple in Ayodhya on Tuesday submitted its preliminary inquiry report to the Uttar Pradesh government, officials said. The preliminary report was submitted by Lucknow Divisional Commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant to Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Sanjay Prasad. They said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe is still underway and further facts are being gathered. The Uttar Pradesh government had on June 13 constituted the SIT on a request from the temple trust following allegations of misappropriation of donations received at the Ayodhya Ram temple.

Thirty-three years after the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was razed by a mob on this day in 1992, paving the way for the grand Ram temple at the site, the tentative timeline for the new mosque project rollout at Dhannipur, a village some 25 km from the holy city, could be around April 2026, head of the trust tasked with the project said. If all fits in place, and of course, subject to the Ayodhya Development Authority's (ADA) approval of the revised layout plan of the mosque that we hope to submit by December-end, a tentative timeline of the mosque project rollout could be around April 2026, Zufar Faruqi, chairman of the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF), the trust tasked with the construction of the mosque-complex project, told PTI. However, despite the cacophony of claims and counterclaims surrounding the much-awaited project, uncertainties still shroud the original mosque plan, more than five years after the Ayodhya district administration, acting on Supreme Court orders, formall

Currently, the city's tourism sector generates between ₹8,000 crore and ₹12,500 crore annually spanning the hospitality, transport, retail, and services sectors

Shedding light on the judgment made in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case, Chandrachud said that most people who expressed their opinions on social media did not even read the judgment

Former Supreme Court judge Justice R F Nariman has criticised the top court's 2019 judgement in the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case, describing it as a "great travesty of justice" that did not do justice to the principle of secularism. Speaking at the First Justice A M Ahmadi Memorial Lecture on 'Secularism and the Indian Constitution', Justice Nariman, however, said the judgment had a "silver lining" as it upheld the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991. He said the Places of Worship Act should be strictly implemented to put an end to disputes over religious places which are popping up every day across the country like "hydra heads". "In my opinion, a great travesty of justice was that secularism was not given its due by these judgements," Justice Nariman said. Justice Nariman also disagreed with the reasoning given by the court to grant the disputed land despite holding that the demolition of the mosque was illegal. "Today we find hydra heads popping all over the ...

Security has also been increased in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal district ahead of Friday prayers at Shahi Jama Masjid, following a stone-pelting incident on November 24

Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud on Monday said there was "nothing wrong" in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to his residence on Ganpati Puja and underscored the need for a "sense of maturity in political sphere" on such issues. "The PM visited my residence for Ganpati Puja. There is absolutely nothing wrong as these are continuing meetings between the judiciary and the executive even at social level. We meet at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Republic Day, etc. We are in conversation with the prime minister and the ministers. This conversation does not involve the cases which we decide but life and society in general," Chandrachud said at an event organised by the Indian Express group. The CJI said one had to respect that a dialogue took place as part of a robust inter-institutional mechanism and separation of powers between judiciary and the executive did not mean the two not meeting. On his statement that he prayed to God for the solution to the Ayodhya Ram Mandir dispute, .

The Uttar Pradesh government has suspended six officials of civic agencies for gross negligence following road cave-ins and waterlogging at several sections of the newly-built Ram Path in Ayodhya. About 15 bylanes and streets along the Ram Path were flooded after rain on June 23 and June 25. Even homes along the road went under water. Portions of the 14-kilometre road stretch also caved in at more than a dozen places. The suspended officials are Dhruv Aggarwal (executive engineer), Anuj Deshwal (assistant engineer) and Prabhat Pandey (junior engineer) of the Public Works Department (PWD) and Anand Kumar Dubey (executive engineer), Rajendra Kumar Yadav (assistant engineer) and Mohammad Shahid (junior engineer) of the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam. Aggarwal and Deshwal were suspended on the orders of special secretary Vinod Kumar on Friday. Pandey's suspension order was issued by PWD chief engineer (development) VK Srivastav. Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam managing director Rakesh Kumar Mishra .

Acharya Laxmikant Dixit, the chief priest who had performed the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, died Saturday morning. Family members said Dixit, 86, was not well for the last few days. His last rites will be conducted at Manikarnika Ghat. Lord Ram's idol was consecrated at the Ayodhya temple on January 22 in an event led by Prime Minister Modi. Counted among the senior scholars of Varanasi, Dixit was a native of Solapur district of Maharashtra but his family has been living in Varanasi for several generations. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the death of Dixit. In a post on 'X', he said, "The departure of Acharya Shri Laxmikant Dixit, a great scholar of Kashi and the chief priest of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Prana Pratishtha, is an irreparable loss to the spiritual and literary world." "He will always be remembered for his service to Sanskrit language and Indian culture," Adityanath said. "I pray to Lord Shri Ram to give a place to the de

A day after the NCERT defended its modifying references to Babri Masjid demolition in school textbooks, Kerala Minister M B Rajesh on Monday termed it as a move to communalise all systems of the government and said there was a need to continue the collective fight against such attempts. Rajesh, a CPI(M) leader, said the BJP-led union government had done similar things in the past 10 years, also claiming that there was no agenda behind their actions. The present move by the NCERT has proved that despite the BJP's decreased number of seats in the Lok Sabha and the party losing the majority to rule independently, the Sangh Parivar was not ready to withdraw from its extreme communal agendas, the minister for Local Self-Government Department (LSGD) alleged. "This is a warning to everyone. So, we have to continue the fight against the Sangh Parivar and their efforts to communalise textbooks and all other systems of the government," he told reporters here. Rejecting accusations of ...

The mosque has four 'tahkhanas' (cellars) in the basement, of which one is still in the possession of the Vyas family, who used to live there

The court directed the district administration to make the necessary arrangements in the next seven days

From flight delays at IGI airport Delhi to the preparations for Ram temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya, catch all the latest updates from around the world here

Ayodhya Ram Mandir pran pratishtha Live: The 'pran pratistha' ceremony of the Ram Lalla idol got completed today afternoon. Catch all the latest updates on the consecration ceremony here

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath reached Ayodhya on Sunday, a day before the consecration ceremony at the Ram temple and oversaw final inspection of the preparations. Adityanath conducted the final inspection of the preparations for Pran Pratistha' and also took stock of other arrangements, a state government spokesperson said in a statement issued in Lucknow. The chief minister also met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat at Sangh office, Saket Nilayam. According to the statement, Adityanath then performed paid obeisance at Hanuman Garhi and later went to Ram temple and took stock of the preparations there. He also went to Karsevakapuram and visited the tent city built by the pilgrimage area there.