The Congress on Friday (July 3, 2026) questioned the investigation into the alleged theft of donations from the Ram temple in Ayodhya, accusing the BJP governments at the Centre and Uttar Pradesh of shielding senior functionaries of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, including its former general secretary Champat Rai, by making junior employees scapegoats.
The party asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had taken “full credit” for the construction of the temple, to break his silence on the issue and accept responsibility for what it termed as “breach of public trust”.
For the past one week, the Congress has been raising the issue of alleged embezzlement at the temple. Addressing a press conference, its spokesperson Ragini Nayak demanded that the accounts of nearly ₹1,400 crore collected from devotees for the construction of the temple before the formation of the Trust be made public. She sought details of the gold and silver bricks donated for the temple’s construction.
Ms. Nayak demanded the immediate dissolution of the Trust and a Supreme Court-monitored investigation into its functioning and financial transactions, while questioning why the report of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted by the State government, had not been made public.
“Who exactly are they trying to protect,” she asked, alleging that while lower-level employees had been arrested in the case, no action had been taken against senior functionaries of the Trust, including Mr. Rai.
“Narendra Modi took full credit for the Ram temple, but today he remains silent on the theft of offerings. When he took the credit, he must also take responsibility. This is a betrayal of the people’s trust,” Ms. Nayak said.
She alleged that around 70 incidents of theft had taken place inside the temple complex over a span of 40 days and claimed that there was no backup of the CCTV footage, no record of thefts over the past five years, and no FIR against Mr. Rai. “Could all this have happened without government protection,” she asked.
The Congress leader questioned whether the Trust had been deliberately kept outside the ambit of the Right to Information Act to shield its financial dealings from public scrutiny.
In a post on X, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh attacked the Prime Minister over the issue. “When there has been a betrayal of Lord Ram and public trust has been breached, what hesitation or arrogance is there in accepting it,” he asked, adding that there was “massive anger and outrage” across the country over the alleged theft of donations.
Published - July 03, 2026 07:50 pm IST
