A bitter row has erupted over allegations that millions of rupees in donations meant for India’s Ram temple in Ayodhya have been siphoned off by a trust controlled by political allies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sources confirm that internal documents leaked to this newsroom detail discrepancies in the audited accounts of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, the body overseeing the temple’s construction.
The allegations first surfaced in a complaint filed by a former trust accountant, who claims he was pressured to falsify receipts for donations collected from overseas, particularly from the Indian diaspora in the UK and the United States. The total sum in question is estimated to be at least 200 crore rupees, or roughly £20 million. The UK Foreign Office has now issued a carefully worded statement calling for “transparency and accountability” in the operations of the trust, signalling growing unease among Commonwealth allies over the handling of the temple funds.
London’s intervention is significant. The Ram temple is a flagship project of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which has long championed the construction on the site of a demolished mosque. Donations poured in from Hindus worldwide after a Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for the temple in 2019. But the trust, stacked with party loyalists, has faced persistent questions over its financial management.
I have obtained copies of internal emails that suggest senior trust officials instructed staff to bypass normal banking channels for large foreign donations. One email from a trustee reads: “Use the cash deposit route for UK funds. Avoid electronic trails.” The practice raises red flags for money laundering, though no formal charges have been filed. The trust’s chairman, Mahant Nritya Gopaldas, dismissed the allegations as “baseless and politically motivated” in a statement. He accused “foreign forces” of trying to defame India’s cultural renaissance.
The timing is awkward for the Modi government, which is already under fire over a separate financial scandal involving the nationalised bank fraud. The opposition Congress Party has seized on the temple donation row, demanding a parliamentary inquiry. “This is a temple built on faith, and every rupee donated is sacred,” said Congress spokesperson Priyanka Singh. “If the government has nothing to hide, why block a proper audit?”
The trust has refused independent audits, citing its status as a religious body exempt from public scrutiny under Indian law. But the UK statement breaks the silence from international partners. British High Commissioner to India Alex Ellis offered no specifics but said: “We encourage all our partners to ensure charitable donations are handled with the utmost integrity.”
Sources close to the trust counter that the allegations are a smear campaign by rivals who opposed the temple’s construction. They point to the accountant’s past links to a Muslim activist group as evidence of bias. But the documents tell a different story: a pattern of unreconciled deposits and inflated expenses on “religious ceremonies” that dwarf the actual construction costs.
The scandal widens just as the temple’s grand opening approaches, scheduled for January 2024. Modi himself is expected to attend. The question now is whether the donations row will cast a shadow over what was meant to be a triumphal moment for his party. For now, the trust is digging in. But the UK’s call for transparency has given fresh ammunition to those demanding answers. The trail of money leads to the heart of India’s political establishment, and this journalist intends to follow it until the bodies or the buried ledgers surface.
