Who is Anukalp Mishra? Investigation into Ram Mandir donation theft brings cash handler’s lifestyle under scrutiny | Today’s news

The Supreme Court on June 29 refused to grant an urgent hearing to a petition seeking the Central Bureau of Investigation to conduct a multi-agency probe into the alleged misappropriation of donated funds for the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

The Supreme Court noted that “the heavens will not fall” if the matter is heard after the court resumes normal functioning after the summer break.

Read also | Alleging ‘chanda-chori’ at Ram Mandir, AAP is seeking strict action against the culprits

The sighting comes amid political unrest over gift theft in Uttar Pradesh.

The investigation so far has drawn attention to Anukalp Mishra, one of the eight people arrested after an FIR was registered in the case. Anukalp Mishra was among the staff responsible for counting and managing the monetary donations received at the temple. He is said to have played a key role in the suspected fraud which was unearthed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT).

Who is Anukalp Mishra?

Anukalp Mishra is a resident of Basawa village in Milkipur area of ​​Ayodhya. He was involved in counting and managing the donations collected at Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. He worked alongside his brother-in-law Lavkush Mishra, who was also arrested in the case. Lavkush is said to be a relative of Trust member Anil Mishra, who quit. Both were part of the team responsible for processing and counting monetary offerings from devotees at the Ram temple, according to multiple media reports.

Anukalp Mishra was arrested after an FIR was lodged at the Ram Janmabhoomi police station against eight named accused and several unidentified individuals following the findings of the SIT investigation. Apart from Anukalp Mishra and Lavkush Mishra, those arrested include Avinash Shukla, Manish Yadav, Tinnu Yadav, former bank employee and counting head Subhash Chandra Srivastava, Karunesh Pandey and other accused who were allegedly involved in processing donations for temples.

Most of those named in the FIR were directly involved in the administration of temple endowments.

Local residents of Anukalp’s village in Ayodhya told NDTV that he had recently built a farm on the outskirts of the village. He bought a house in Ayodhya last year, which is now worth approx ₹65 lakh, asp is an NDTV report.

Anukalpa’s neighbors said that even though he already owned the vehicle, he was in the process of booking a Mahindra Scorpio.

Anukalp, who worked in the bank’s outsourcing team, joined the temple’s donation counting team three years ago. He later got his brother-in-law Lavkush Mishra on the same team through the bank’s outsourcing agency.

How did they steal the donation money?

According to media reports, enumeration staff allegedly inserted special notes into the money packets before preparing gift vouchers. At the bank, officials only counted the number of bundles instead of verifying the number of bills in each bundle before issuing deposit slips, according to a report in News 18.

During the transfer of cash from the temple to the bank, additional notes were secretly removed from the bundles, allowing the deposit slips to match the recorded amount, while some of the donated money was allegedly diverted. Anukalp Mishra was involved in preparing gift vouchers and allegedly ran the scam with the help of his brother-in-law Lavkush Mishra, a News18 report said.

Yogi vs Akhilesh Political slugfest

Amid the political blame game, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has urged SP chief Akhilesh Yadav to publicly support the Krishna Janmabhoomi movement. Yadav accused the ruling party of shifting from a “nation first” approach to a “donation first” approach.

The Ayodhya Ram temple donation controversy first surfaced on June 7 when SP leader Tej Narayan ‘Pawan’ Pandey alleged that among ₹5 million and ₹7.5 million was drained from the temple offerings.

Yadav on Sunday accused the ruling party of reducing Uttar Pradesh to a “paper leak government” and said it was working on the “4C formula” consisting of “chanda (gifts), chori (theft), churai (cunning) and chalaki (fraud), as reported by HT earlier.

The UP CM urged Yadav to openly support the movement for Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura, similar to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, while criticizing his comments on Ayodhya.

“Akhileshji, Ayodhya has already been transformed by the devotees of Lord Ram. Don’t worry about it. Do penance, visit Ram Lalla at least once, it will give you some wisdom. Now get ready so that we can also do something for Lord Krishna,” said the Chief Minister at Hathras.