Panaji: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Friday alleged that “powerful people” involved in the alleged theft of offerings and financial irregularities at the Ram Mandir were being protected and said the entire nation wanted to know who they were.
Addressing a press conference in Goa, Kejriwal alleged that valuables offered by devotees, including jewellery, silver bricks, ornaments, cash and other offerings, had been stolen from the temple. He also referred to earlier allegations regarding land transactions linked to the temple trust and claimed that financial irregularities had been taking place since 2021.
“The biggest question in the minds of every devotee of Lord Ram is whether those responsible will be punished. Today, the entire country wants to know who the powerful people are that are being protected,” he said.
The former Delhi Chief Minister alleged that evidence related to the case was being destroyed and witnesses were being intimidated in an attempt to suppress the matter.
Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kejriwal rejected claims that the latter was unaware of the alleged irregularities.
“People do not believe that the Prime Minister had no knowledge of what was happening. The trust was constituted under his leadership, and every member was his choice. It is impossible that such developments continued for years without his knowledge,” he alleged.
Kejriwal referred to past allegations relating to land purchases for the temple, claiming that parcels of land were bought by the trust at highly inflated prices after changing hands within minutes. He also alleged that commissions were paid in construction contracts and claimed that thefts of offerings were captured on CCTV cameras on multiple occasions.
He further alleged that eight months of CCTV footage had been deleted and claimed that the reported thefts represented only the “tip of the iceberg”.
Questioning the investigation, the AAP leader alleged that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to probe the matter lacked legal authority as it was formed without the registration of an FIR.
He claimed that the SIT could neither arrest suspects nor conduct searches, nor issue summons. According to him, previous SITs formed to probe alleged land irregularities had also failed to produce any outcome.
Kejriwal also alleged that while eight lower-level employees had been arrested and around Rs 80 lakh recovered, no action had been been taken against those allegedly responsible for the larger financial irregularities.
“We are not alleging that any money reached the Prime Minister. We have no evidence to make such a claim. But the sequence of events indicates that there has been an attempt to protect those involved and bury the entire matter,” he alleged.
The AAP chief urged devotees and members of the Hindu community to raise their voices over the issue, saying that the sentiments of millions of Lord Ram devotees had been hurt by the allegations.
