An SBI manager questioned in Ayodhya ‘theft’ case was a tenant of Ram temple trustee

The State Bank of India is banker to the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The cash offerings at the temple are counted in the temple complex and regularly deposited at the Ayodhya branch of the bank, where the temple trust operates two accounts.

The trust was formed to construct the temple after a Supreme Court judgement in 2019 awarded the site of the demolished Babri Masjid to Hindus.

Two years after the inauguration of the temple, the trust and its powerful members have been hit by allegations that vast amounts of money and jewellery donated by devotees have been stolen under their watch.

As Scroll has reported, one of those officials under scrutiny is Anil Mishra, a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and most prominent name in the Sangh in the Awadh region.

According to the Indian Express, Mishra was in charge of the temple’s donation and counting process. He has reportedly resigned from the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, though his resignation is yet to be accepted.

Strikingly, a State Bank of India official and his family live as tenants in Mishra’s home in Faizabad’s Amaniganj locality, Scroll has found.

The SBI official, Addikya Raghu Ram Sagar, was interrogated by the Special Investigation Team formed by the Uttar Pradesh government to inquire into the allegations of theft, according to an official in the Ayodhya branch of the bank. Sagar admitted to Scroll that he had been questioned by the team. He said he was not involved in the counting process.

Several bank officials have been questioned about the case by the Special Investigation Team.

A former official at the Ayodhya branch, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Scroll that the bank was responsible for counting cash donations but it had outsourced this responsibility to the Ram temple trust after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with it. As part of the MoU, the trust hired staff for the counting of cash donations, who were paid by the SBI, the official said.

The bank did not respond to questions from Scroll. A spokesperson declined to comment over a phone call.

Scroll texted Mishra seeking a response. The story will be updated if he responds.

‘I don’t need to tell you about it’

Sagar’s Linkedin profile describes him as a chief manager at the SBI in Ayodhya. Three officials at the bank said that he liaisons between the bank and the temple trust and also handles the bank’s digital banking vertical. But his main job, they added, is to manage visits to the Ram temple for SBI and Reserve Bank of India officials.

Sagar told Scroll that he was not involved in the trust’s counting of cash donations. “This [SIT] investigation has started now,” he said. “Only in the last two weeks, Anil Mishra has been proven to be a culprit in it – not even a culprit, he’s an accused. Before that, Mishra was known to be such a great man that to meet him, one would have to wait for two hours in a queue…How would I ever dream up that things would turn out this way?”

Mishra’s house is located in Faizabad’s upscale Amaniganj locality, about 4 km from the temple. When Scroll visited the house, there were two cars parked inside – one registered in Sagar’s name and the other in Mishra’s.

At the temple, Mishra oversaw the counting, storage and use of cash donations, according to the Indian Express. He, too, was questioned by the Uttar Pradesh government’s Special Investigation Team for his role in the alleged theft of the funds and valuable offerings at the temple.

Navneet Mishra, Anil Mishra’s daughter-in-law, who lives on the ground floor, said that Sagar has lived on the first floor for nearly four years.

An SBI official in Ayodhya said that Sagar also obtained VIP passes for the bank’s visitors by coordinating with RSS leader Gopal Rao, an administrator at the temple.

A VIP pass at the Ram temple allows visitors to use a special queue and grants access to an area called Ram Bhavan, which is located above the temple’s sanctum sanctorum.

This official added that SIT had questioned Sagar because of his tenancy at Mishra’s home. The SIT report is yet to be made public.

Sagar first denied that he had been questioned by the SIT to Scroll, then added: “The interrogation was not related to this [being a tenant at Mishra’s house]. Whatever they asked, I answered. I don’t need to tell you about it.”

The SBI runs a branch in Ayodhya and a regional business office in the nearby town of Faizabad. Three SBI officials told Scroll that while Sagar is formally attached with the regional business office, he spends most of his time at the temple trust’s office in Ayodhya.

Sagar is from Hyderabad but studied at the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi. He was posted at SBI in Ayodhya district between 2021 and 2024, then transferred for three months to Badaun district in western Uttar Pradesh. He was posted back to Ayodhya in April 2024, after the inauguration of the temple.

The SIT’s inquiry, prompted by allegations from a whistleblower and Opposition leaders that cash and jewellery offerings were swindled under the trust’s watch, led to a first information report on June 25.

It named eight accused, including Subhash Srivastava, a local RSS leader who managed the counting of cash donations, and Ram Shankar Yadav, an aide of Champat Rai. The other accused were staffers hired for counting – Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey and Ramashankar Mishra.

The FIR did not name trustees Mishra and Rai.