The Hidden Camera Trap: SIT Deepens Ram Janmabhoomi Financial Audit Across Seven National Banks

Key Story Highlights

• The Surveillance Trap: Trust officials cracked the case by installing hidden, covert cameras after noticing a repeated shortage of ₹500 currency notes in the official donation logs.

  India Today

• Massive Financial Audit: Ayodhya Police have formally demanded five years of complete transaction histories and KYC documents from seven distinct banks linked to the accused.

  India Today

• Bank Warning Ignored: The State Bank of India (SBI) Ayodhya Dham branch revealed it had flagged suspicious irregularities to temple authorities three months prior, but the warning went unheeded.

  India Today

• The Voucher System Fraud: Accused Anukalp Mishra allegedly falsified internal deposit vouchers, artificially inflating the note count during transport before removing the surplus before final bank deposit.

  India Today

• Surging Devotion: Despite the shocking administrative probe, daily footfall has broken records, pushing average day-to-day donations to double from ₹10 lakh to over ₹24 lakh.

  India Today

AYODHYA: The ongoing investigation into the financial misappropriation at the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple has entered a rigorous forensic phase. The Special Investigation Team (SIT), originally assembled to look into an estimated ₹7 crore leakage, has revealed a multi-layered scam executed through manipulated accounting registers and intentional blind spots.

According to comprehensive structural updates reported by India Today, the entire network crumbled not through regular checks, but because of a highly classified, internal sting operation utilizing hidden spy cameras inside the core counting chambers.

How Hidden Spypoints Broke the Racket

The breakthrough in the investigation came during the final week of May, when internal auditors noticed that collection boxes consistently yielded less money than expected. Usually, an individual temple box holds about ₹7 lakh to ₹8 lakh in everyday liquid capital. However, supervisors spotted an unnatural trend: stacks of high-value ₹500 currency notes were repeatedly falling short.

To trap the perpetrators without raising an alarm, temple trust administrators covertly installed secondary, hidden cameras that recorded the room from alternative angles. The resulting secret video footage completely blew the case open. It captured employees deliberately adjusting their body positions to block the visible overhead security cameras, allowing their accomplices to slip bundles of currency and unrecorded jewelry items directly into their uniform linings.

The Voucher Pad and Banking Trail Under Scrutiny

As the legal net closes around the eight arrested individuals, investigators have uncovered a clever secondary method used to manipulate the cash flow. Detailed case files shared by India Today indicate that accused clerk Anukalp Mishra manipulated the official donation logs.

The Double-Counting Fraud Loop:
===================================================================
1. Staking Phase  : Extra uncounted notes were mixed into transit bags.
2. Voucher Prep   : Vouchers were written to show matching inflated figures.
3. Transit Theft  : Excess cash was removed during transit to the bank.
4. Final Deposit  : The bank deposit perfectly matched the tampered voucher.
===================================================================

Source: Core SIT Interrogation Summaries & BNS Remand Filings

Mishra would bundle the cash and create matching deposit slips. However, extra notes were covertly added to the bags before they left the temple premises. During transport from the complex to the local branch, these extra bills were quietly taken out. This ensured that the final amount deposited perfectly matched the altered paperwork, masking the theft from the main vault.

SBI's Prior Warnings and Five-Year Account Audits

The investigation has raised tough questions for institutional supervisors. Operational logs published by The New Indian Express show that the police have formally written to seven national banking institutions. They have demanded five full years of absolute financial tracking, including account statements, deposit summaries, and extensive KYC papers belonging to the accused handlers.

Banks Intersecting the Current Financial Probe:
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  State Bank of India (SBI) - Ayodhya Dham Main Branch  │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Six Secondary Commercial Banks (Personal Accounts)    │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Status: 4-Hour Bank Official Interrogations Concluded

The State Bank of India's (SBI) Ayodhya Dham branch has become a major focus of the probe. During intensive questioning sessions, bank officials revealed that they had formally warned temple administrators about operational gaps nearly three months before the arrests. SBI had recommended replacing the entire outsourced team handling the money. Regrettably, this critical safety advice was delayed at administrative levels, allowing the siphoning to continue unnoticed.

Conclusion

Despite the ongoing investigation, the faith of ordinary citizens remains unshaken. Public logs show that as summer traveler numbers rise, daily temple collections have actually surged from their baseline of ₹10–12 lakh, doubling to an impressive ₹20–24 lakh per day.

With the SIT reviewing five years of data across multiple banking networks, this active investigation is turning into a highly detailed cleanup of the temple's secular management. It is setting a brand-new standard for how large religious institutions manage public funds transparently across the country.

This is Article 3 of a 5-part investigative series tracking the Ayodhya Temple Case. Please request Article 4 when you are ready to proceed.

To see how law enforcement is mapping this complex banking network, you can watch this report on how the Ram Mandir Donation Theft Probe Deepens Across 7 Banks. This clip explains how the local police are tracing the movement of funds through different personal and salary accounts to recover the missing temple wealth.