| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
In the 2021 land dispute, the temple trust was accused of buying land worth ₹2 crore from Ravi Mohan Tiwari and Sultan Ansari for ₹18 crore, and Tiwari is related by marriage to former Ayodhya mayor Rishikesh Upadhyay.
land purchase scandal
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
At the trust executive committee meeting on 6 July, Champat Rai and Anil Mishra will be called to present their side, and a final decision will be taken on their resignations.
trust meeting on resignations
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
The temple's MoU with State Bank of India for counting offerings — requiring joint presence of trust and bank officials, a dress code, and monthly rotation of bank staff — was not being followed on any condition.
SBI MoU violations
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
Wireless department officer Arjun Dev had monitored the Ram Mandir CCTV cameras since 2009 — 17 years without transfer — and multiple transfer orders for him were repeatedly withdrawn, allegedly because Champat Rai blocked them.
blocked officer transfers
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
On 5 June police recovered ₹5 lakh in cash from the house of offerings-counter Avinash Shukla, yet Champat Rai filed no FIR, and three days later on 8 June he told the media no theft of offerings had happened.
FIR not filed
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
Even after theft was caught 70 times on three CCTV cameras between 27 April and 5 June, Champat Rai kept denying that any theft had occurred.
theft denial
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
One week of hidden-camera recordings showed that employees stealing offerings would stand in front of the CCTV cameras during counting to block the view.
CCTV concealment
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
According to the SIT investigation and the channel's findings, Champat Rai had known about the offerings theft for many months.
prior knowledge of theft
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
No case has been registered against Champat Rai so far, nor have any official charges been made against him.
no charges filed
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
Ram Mandir chief priest Mahant Satyendra Das, before his death, publicly questioned Champat Rai's functioning in November 2022, naming Tinnu Yadav, Gopal Rao, Anil Mishra and Champat Rai as acting like 'owners' of the temple.
priest's allegations
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
₹4 crore was spent on guest house maintenance in just 11 months, and all this expenditure happened under Champat Rai's supervision.
guest house expenditure
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
According to the temple trust, ₹152 crore was spent on temple complex construction between 1 April 2025 and 28 February 2026, including ₹87 crore on the boundary wall alone.
construction spending
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
The ₹80 lakh recovered in the case is money stolen from temple offerings.
stolen offerings recovery
|
communal religion |
accurate |
80.0% |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
400 private security guards worked at the temple on monthly salaries of ₹19,000–24,000, and most of them were relatives or acquaintances of Champat Rai's close associates, hired on his recommendation.
security hiring nepotism
|
communal religion |
accurate |
60.0% |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
Champat Rai was appointed general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust on 19 February 2020, and no term limit was ever fixed for him or other trust members.
trust term limits
|
communal religion |
accurate |
85.0% |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
Champat Rai was born in 1946 in Bijnor district, Uttar Pradesh, worked as a college professor, and was jailed during the 1975 Emergency for his RSS association.
Champat Rai profile
|
communal religion |
accurate |
97.0% |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
In the Ram Mandir offerings theft case, only low-level employees ('small fish') have been arrested so far.
Ram Mandir offerings theft
|
communal religion |
accurate |
80.0% |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
When Sabarimala's gold-clad dwarapalaka idols were sent to Chennai in 2019, official records described them merely as copper plates, and investigators allege the heavy old gold layers were stolen and replaced with thinner new plating.
idol gold swap
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
In 1998–99, industrialist Vijay Mallya donated a total of 30.291 kilograms of gold to the Sabarimala temple, which was used for gold-plating parts of the temple.
Mallya gold donation
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
According to temple trust sources, daily offerings at the Ram Mandir have risen from ₹10–12 lakh per day earlier to ₹20–24 lakh per day now, so claims that devotee numbers have fallen after the theft are wrong.
temple offerings rise
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
The day before the disputed structure was demolished in 1992, L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Brahmadutt Dwivedi held a meeting at trust member Anil Mishra's house.
1992 demolition meeting
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
In the 2021 land dispute, the temple trust was accused of buying land worth ₹2 crore from Ravi Mohan Tiwari and Sultan Ansari for ₹18 crore, and Ravi Mohan Tiwari is related by marriage to former Ayodhya mayor Rishikesh Upadhyay.
land purchase scandal
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
At the trust executive committee meeting on 6 July, Champat Rai and Anil Mishra will be called to present their side and a final decision will be taken on their resignations.
trust meeting resignations
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
The trust's MOU with State Bank of India mandated joint presence of trust and bank officials for opening donation boxes, a dress code for counting staff, and monthly rotation of bank officials, but none of these conditions were followed.
donation counting rules
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |
| Anjana Om Kashyap |
2026-06-30 |
Wireless department officer Arjun Dev had been monitoring CCTV cameras at the Ram Mandir since 2009, going 17 years without a transfer, with multiple transfer orders repeatedly withdrawn, allegedly at Champat Rai's intervention.
CCTV officer transfers
|
communal religion |
not checked |
— |