Ayodhya>: A special court here on Tuesday granted a 14-hour police remand of two accused in the alleged Ram temple donation embezzlement case, rejecting the investigating officer’s request for seven days’ custody, sources said.
The court of the Special Judge (Anti-Corruption) allowed the police remand of accused Ramshankar Mishra and Subhash Chandra Shrivastava.
According to sources, Investigating Officer Ashutosh Tiwari had sought a seven-day police remand to interrogate the duo, but the court granted custody for 14 hours instead.
Police are expected to take both accused into custody at around 7 am on Wednesday for questioning, the sources said.
Police have already interrogated co-accused Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra and Karunesh Pandey during separate spells of police remand in connection with the case.
Sources claimed that the interrogation of the four accused led to the recovery of two four-wheelers allegedly purchased using the misappropriated money, besides cash, gold and documents relating to investments.
The investigation has also revealed that part of the allegedly embezzled money was invested in interest-based lending and the stock market, they further claimed.
The alleged embezzlement of Ram temple donations came to light in the first week of June, following which the Uttar Pradesh government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT).
An FIR was registered on June 25 on the basis of the SIT’s preliminary report. Eight persons associated with the temple’s donation-counting process have been arrested in the case so far.
During the investigation, police have recovered cash from multiple accused, with the highest recovery of Rs 20.39 lakh being made from Avinash Shukla, besides gold, silver, foreign currency and a donation box labelled “Ramrajya Kosh”. The probe is underway.
