Ram Temple Trust Secretary and Trustee Resign Amid Fund Embezzlement Probe

Two senior members of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, general secretary Champat Rai and trustee Anil Mishra, resigned on Friday. Their resignations came a day after eight men were arrested for allegedly embezzling funds donated to the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Among the arrested is Rai’s former driver, Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu Yadav. No allegations have been made against Rai or Mishra, but both have faced criticism from Opposition parties.

Champat Rai

Champat Rai, 79, was born in Nagina tehsil of Bijnor district, Uttar Pradesh. He completed post-graduate studies in Physics and taught at a college in Bijnor for nearly 11 years before formally joining the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), with which he had been associated since childhood. He became a pracharak and later held various positions, including gat nayak (shakha organiser) and sah-zila karyavah (district joint secretary). He was among those detained during the Emergency (1975-77).

Between 1981 and 1984, Rai served as the Sangh’s zila pracharak in Dehradun, later moving to Saharanpur and then Meerut. In July 1986, he became the prant co-organisation secretary of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and later served as organisation secretary in one of its regional units. At the height of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement in 1991, he was moved to Ayodhya. From 1991 to 1995, he was the VHP’s co-organisation secretary for Uttar Pradesh. He was shifted to Delhi in 1996 as the outfit’s central co-secretary. He rose through the VHP ranks to become secretary, joint general secretary, and general secretary, before being promoted to international vice-president in 2018.

Rai came into the spotlight when he was appointed general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in 2020, becoming its key face. He supervised the temple construction from Karsevakpuram in Ayodhya. Despite Opposition criticism—including from AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, who alleged that Rai refused to share donation accounts with the Prime Minister and that a special investigation team was a cover-up—VHP functionaries defended Rai, suggesting a possible lapse in supervision due to misplaced trust.

Anil Mishra

Anil Mishra, 65, was one of the 15 trustees of the trust formed in 2020. Ahead of the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple on January 22, 2024, Mishra and his wife Usha performed rituals as the “Pradhan Yajman” (main hosts). Mishra began the consecration rituals on January 16 by taking a dip in the Saryu river, followed by an eight-hour fast and performance of prashchita, sankalpa, and karmakuti pujas.

Mishra lives in Ayodhya and has frequently interacted with the media, locals, and VIP visitors about the temple’s construction progress. He hails from Patauna village in Ambedkar Nagar district, Uttar Pradesh. He joined the RSS during the Emergency and rose to become prant sah-karyavah and later prant karyavah of the RSS in the Awadh region. He was also associated with the Ram temple movement and is currently a member of the RSS’s Awadh regional unit.

Mishra served as a government medical officer (homoeopathy) and retired in 2020. After retirement, he became involved in RSS activities in Ayodhya and the temple construction. His two sons are doctors; one practices in Germany.

The resignations come as investigations continue into the alleged misappropriation of funds donated for the Ram temple. No charges have been filed against Rai or Mishra at this time.