The Ram Temple donation embezzlement case took a fresh political turn on Thursday after the brother of one of the arrested accused alleged that senior functionaries of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust were being shielded while his sibling had been made a 'scapegoat'.
The claims were made in an interview with India Today.
Dinesh Yadav, brother of arrested accused Ramashankar Yadav alias Tinnu Yadav, claimed his brother had an “unblemished” record and worked with Trust general secretary Champat Rai for nearly 20 years.
“My brother never had any disputes or criminal cases. He worked with Champat Rai for around 20 years. Now he has been abandoned. The big people are saving themselves while small people are being framed,” Dinesh said.
Rejecting the allegations against Tinnu as “completely false and baseless”, he said his brother was being projected as the main accused despite allegedly receiving only Rs 1 lakh. “Tinnu is being framed,” he said, adding that no lawyer was willing to represent him and seeking legal aid through the government or the courts.
His remarks come ahead of a key meeting of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust next week to consider the resignations of Champat Rai and trustee Anil Mishra. Police have already recorded Champat Rai’s statement and are probing the role of around 400 private security personnel deployed at the temple complex.
The SIT, constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government after allegations of donation embezzlement surfaced in June, has so far arrested eight people. Investigators have recovered nearly Rs 80 lakh in cash and foreign currency and are examining CCTV footage, duty rosters and security protocols as the probe continues.