Congress workers protest outside the district headquarters over the alleged theft of donation deeds linked to the Shri Ram Temple in Ayodhya, in Varanasi on June 24, 2026. Photo: PTI. New Delhi: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing alleged financial irregularities at the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya handed over its preliminary findings to the Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday (June 23). Samajwadi Party (SP) chief and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav pointed out that there is no point in conducting an SIT probe if no FIR is registered in connection with the case.

Lucknow divisional commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, who heads the three-member SIT, submitted the initial report to additional chief secretary (home) Sanjay Prasad, who also happens to be the state government's ex-officio representative on the trust, a detail that has not gone unnoticed and could be a case of conflict of interest. SP chief Yadav called for sealing international borders so the culprits don't flee and questioned if the investigation was intended to "cover up" the issue or merely create a division.

Without an FIR, the SIT is like a bow without arrows. Now comes the deplorable news of the disappearance of the ‘Kagbhushundi’ that was given as a donation. The way new exposures of thefts of ‘offerings-donations-gifts’ are emerging every day, and the anger of devout Sanatanis is only increasing. Seeing this, Nepal and other borders should be sealed off so that the culprits cannot escape," he wrote on X. Yadav added, "When revelations are still unfolding, what will the SIT's investigation achieve, and especially when this ‘investigation’ is more for ‘covering up’ or perhaps for ‘dividing up’." The SIT was formed on June 13, after the Ram temple trust itself requested an inquiry into allegations of donation misappropriation. News website the Probe has reported that a 1997-batch Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS) officer, Ashutosh Sharma, remains listed on the Ram Mandir trust's construction committee.

Sharma served as director general and secretary to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), one of the most senior administrative posts in the institution, from July 2021 to November 2024, while he was on the temple construction committee. He currently serves as principal accountant general (audit), Haryana, and has six years of service remaining. In November 2024, the Probe had asked then CAG Girish Chandra Murmu whether Sharma's appointment had been formally authorised and under which rules a serving officer could participate in a religious trust.

A public interest litigation before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has sought both a CAG audit and a CBI probe into the trust's finances. The petitioner had earlier written to the CAG directly and received no response, the report added. Notably, CAG cannot credibly audit the Ram Mandir Trust as long as one of its own serving officers sits on the trust's committee. The Uttar Pradesh government has not registered an FIR related to the case yet "despite the recovery of approximately Rs 2 crore in cash and gold from individuals linked to the donation-counting process," the report added. This article went live on February fourteenth, two thousand twenty six, at three minutes past one in the afternoon.