{"id":128943,"date":"2026-07-07T17:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=128943"},"modified":"2026-07-07T17:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:30:14","slug":"temple-built-on-site-of-demolished-babri-mosque-reshuffles-leadership-after-donation-theft-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128943\/","title":{"rendered":"Temple built on site of demolished Babri mosque reshuffles leadership after donation theft scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(National Times)- A trust that runs India\u2019s grand Ram temple, built on the site of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1097857\">demolished Babri Masjid<\/a>\u00a0and consecrated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2024 after decades of controversy, has overhauled its leadership after people involved in counting donations were accused of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2011019\">stealing millions of rupees in offerings<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The construction of the temple dedicated fulfilled one of the biggest promises of Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which derives its support mainly from the Hindu majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The alleged theft at the temple has provided the opposition with ammunition ahead of an election due early next year in bellwether Uttar Pradesh, India\u2019s most populous state, where the temple is located in the city of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1692240\">Ayodhya<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The temple site was bitterly contested for decades, sparking nationwide riots in 1992 that killed 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, after a Hindu mob destroyed the 16th-century mosque there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2013595\/temple-built-on-site-of-demolished-babri-mosque-reshuffles-leadership-after-donation-theft-scandal#shameful-incident\"><\/a>\u2018Shameful incident\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trustees of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra, set up by Modi\u2019s government to build the temple, met on Monday and said they accepted the resignation of General Secretary Champat Rai and trustee Anil Mishra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They appointed an interim secretary and a committee to identify candidates for a newly created position of chief executive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The trust did not say how much money had been stolen, but authorities said, following the arrest of eight people last month, that nearly eight million Indian rupees had been recovered from seven of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Until March 31, the temple had received INR5.82 billion in offerings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis donation theft is a very shameful incident for all of us,\u201d trust treasurer Govindadev Giri told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe all are hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), from which Modi\u2019s party emerged, has urged Hindus to be patient and restrained to \u201cfoil the conspiracies of anti-Hindu, anti-national forces who seek to exploit this unfortunate incident to malign Hindu dharma and society\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2013595\/temple-built-on-site-of-demolished-babri-mosque-reshuffles-leadership-after-donation-theft-scandal#opposition-calls-on-modi-to-speak-up\"><\/a>Opposition calls on Modi to speak up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Opposition parties have asked for the trust to be dissolved and Modi to speak up on the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The prime minister, whose party has ruled Uttar Pradesh since 2017 but did poorly there in the national election in 2024, is on a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2013570\">tour of Indonesia<\/a>&nbsp;from where he will fly to Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe country does not need piecemeal resignations,\u201d Congress party spokesperson Pawan Khera said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt deserves a complete dissolution and overhaul of the trust, and every one of its members must face an independent, Supreme Court-supervised investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Modi\u2019s BJP has accused the opposition of being opportunistic in attacking the government over the theft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Supreme Court handed the land to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1801667\">Hindus<\/a>&nbsp;in 2019, ordering that Muslims be given a separate plot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(National Times)- A trust that runs India\u2019s grand Ram temple, built on the site of the\u00a0demolished Babri Masjid\u00a0and consecrated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2024 after decades of controversy, has overhauled its leadership after people involved in counting donations were accused of\u00a0stealing millions of rupees in offerings. The construction of the temple dedicated fulfilled [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Temple built on site of demolished Babri mosque reshuffles leadership after donation theft scandal - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128943\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Temple built on site of demolished Babri mosque reshuffles leadership after donation theft scandal - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(National Times)- A trust that runs India\u2019s grand Ram temple, built on the site of the\u00a0demolished Babri Masjid\u00a0and consecrated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2024 after decades of controversy, has overhauled its leadership after people involved in counting donations were accused of\u00a0stealing millions of rupees in offerings. 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