Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh: Rakesh Kumar Gupta, an Ayodhya-based businessman who owns a prasad (food offering) shop near the Hanuman Garhi temple, has alleged that he never received a receipt for the washing machine he donated to the Ram Temple in 2019 despite repeated requests.
Speaking to The Wire, Gupta, who also runs a jewellery store in the city, said, “I had known Tinnu Yadav for several years as he used to drop my daughter to school in his tempo. I had only reached out to him asking if I could do some seva (service) for the Ram Mandir.”
Ram Shankar Yadav or Tinnu is among the eight accused in the Ram Mandir Funds Theft case, arrested for the alleged embezzlement of money and valuables donated by devotees.
According to Gupta, months before the Supreme Court judgement in 2019, which awarded the disputed land to the Hindu petitioners, Yadav suggested he donate a washing machine “for the purpose of washing sheets and clothes used by the temple, including clothes used to adorn the idols.”
At the time, a small idol of Lord Ram along with other idols were being worshipped at a makeshift wooden temple near the contested site.
Gupta, who had also participated in kar seva (voluntary service) on December 6, 1992, and witnessed the domes of the Babri Masjid being pulled down, recalled, “I was covered with dust that day. Our Vyapar Mandal president had advised us to shut shop that day but I couldn't stop myself from visiting the site. Some kar sevaks were already trickling into my shop saying, 'aaj sab fateh ho gaya (we have won today)'.”
Kar sevaks were Hindu volunteers led by organisations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) who demolished the 16th-century Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in December 1992.
“I approached an LG agency here in Ayodhya and purchased a large-sized washing machine. I also requested the agency owner to get names of my ancestors painted on the machine. Then I donated it to the temple in the presence of Anil Mishra,” Gupta recalled, adding that he had got the machine transported to the office of Manas Trust within temple premises in 2019.
Anil Mishra, one of the trustees of the trust running the temple, resigned last week, and is under the scanner of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the fund embezzlement at the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
“Later, I requested Tinnu to issue a receipt for the donation. After several reminders, I just let it be,” said Gupta. He now wants to make a submission before the SIT and wants it to record his statement.
Gupta also claimed that around the same time, in 2019, his mother had wanted to apply homemade kajal (kohl) on the idol of Lord Ram in order to ward off buri nazar (the evil eye). He reached out to Tinnu, who took the kajal in a silverware item known as kajrota from him but never returned the item. A kajrota typically costs Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500.