“Champat Rai resigns on moral grounds from the post of general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust; Trust member Anil Mishra also resigns,” ANI tweeted. However, there is no official confirmation on this yet.
Also Read: Action began immediately after SIT report: Yogi Adityanath after arrests in Ram temple donation case
The accused, who are now in judicial custody, will be produced before the court again on Monday. Police may seek their remand to interrogate them further. According to a source, Friday was a holiday and thus, they were produced before the remand magistrate.
As per the ANI report, ₹79,85,493 was recovered from the accused persons except for one Subhash. Quoting prosecution officer KC Verma, the ANI report mentioned that nothing was recovered from Subhash though he was involved in the conspiracy.
“We have selected a DySP rank officer as the investigating officer (IO). We will ensure proper investigation,” Ayodhya’s senior superintendent of police Gaurav Grover told ET on phone.
Also Read: Ayodhya will become BJP’s ‘Lanka’: Akhilesh Yadav on Ram Temple unravellingA PTI report said the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Friday said it has no knowledge of its vice president Champat Rai resigning.
The eight arrested are Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lav Kush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ram Shankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Ramashankar, alias Tinnu Yadav.
Meanwhile, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said police action against the accused began immediately after the SIT submitted its report. Anyone found guilty would not be spared, he said during an address in Deoria, after the UP Police night arrested all the eight persons named in the FIR on Thursday.
Adityanath described the controversy as an attempt to target Ram devotees and defame Ayodhya. This was done out of “frustration” by some political parties, he said.
The case relates to the alleged embezzlement of cash and valuables offered by devotees at the Ram temple. An FIR was registered after a preliminary report by a special investigation team (SIT), and the investigation is being carried out by both SIT and Ayodhya police.
– With inputs from agencies
