Varanasi: Six of the eight men arrested in connection with alleged irregularities in the collection of donations at the Ram temple were on the payroll of a Varanasi-based security agency, Sainik Security Services, which had been hired by the State Bank of India’s Naya Ghat branch in Ayodhya.After the name of Sainik Security Services surfaced in the alleged Ram Temple donation theft case, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) reached Varanasi on Wednesday to question the firm’s owner, Gaurav Singh. He claimed that his agency had never deployed any employee at the Ram temple in Ayodhya.The agency’s operator said SBI had sought housekeeping staff from April 1, 2025, following which 15 employees were deployed under a three-year contract. Their strength was later increased to 19.He maintained that the agency’s role was limited to supplying housekeeping personnel to the bank and that it had no knowledge of the specific duties assigned to the employees or the work they carried out within the bank premises. According to the agency operator, the six arrested men —Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey and Ram Shankar Mishra, all residents of Ayodhya — were already working at the bank branch concerned through another agency. “When our agency received the housekeeping contract, they were reappointed through the agency on the bank’s recommendation,” he said.Singh said that if the housekeeping staff were assigned duties such as counting donation money or carrying out other banking work, the decision would have been taken solely by the bank.He maintained that the agency had no knowledge of such assignments and clarified that its contractual relationship was with the SBI branch, not the Ram temple trust.
