How SBI's Local Branch Is Linked To Ram Temple Cash Theft Case

More than two years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the shrine finds itself at the centre of a financial controversy, with allegations that crores of rupees in devotee donations have gone missing. As investigators dig into the matter, attention has increasingly turned toward the local branch of State Bank of India, the institution entrusted with managing the temple's cash.

So far, eight people have been named in the case and six arrested, according to news reports tracking the Special Investigation Team's progress. The probe has since broadened beyond the initial theft allegations to examine whether SBI staff played a role in the fraud, and whether the bank followed adequate safeguards while handling temple funds.

How SBI Came to Manage The temple's Cash

Three banks are linked to the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, which runs the temple; SBI, Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank. The trust maintains its savings, current and fixed deposit accounts across these three lenders, as per media reports. Of the three, SBI held primary responsibility for the cash arm of the relationship, specifically the donations collected through temple Hundis, a task banks refer to as a cash management system.

Temples of this scale typically follow a fairly rigorous cash handling routine. Donation boxes scattered through the premises are first brought to one location, with a bank representative or two present depending on what the contract specifies. Only then are the boxes opened and the counting begun.

Every note and coin has to be tallied by denomination, with both temple and bank staff keeping matching registers, according to a report by Moneycontrol. How often this counting happens depends on the contract terms, though larger temples, including this one, typically count their collections daily.

Once the count is finalised, the cash moves to the nearest branch for deposit. This step also has its own protocol. Representatives from the bank, the temple and the cash transit company must all be present when the money is loaded for transport, and each of them has to sign off on the amount being carried. Bank staff are required to accompany the cash to the branch, where it undergoes a second count before finally being credited to the temple's account. Any mismatch between what was counted at the temple and what arrives at the branch is supposed to be reported to temple officials without delay.

Figures reported by Hindustan Times put the trust's annual income at ₹327 crore for financial year 2024-25, placing it among the wealthiest temples in the country. The wider temple complex, which houses six smaller shrines besides the main structure, sees between 70,000 and 80,000 visitors on an average day, a number that roughly triples during weekends and festival periods. Devotees mostly deposit their offerings into around 35 donation boxes spread across the site.

Where The Alleged Fraud Occurred

The theft is believed to have occurred during the cash counting stage itself, according to news reports. The main allegations is a failure to follow the standard operating procedure agreed upon between the trust and SBI in their memorandum of understanding. The SIT looking into the case has pointed to specific lapses by the bank's local branch in sticking to this agreed process, a Times of India report said.

Notably, SBI's own staff initially ran the cash management operation. This arrangement later changed when the bank brought in 22 additional personnel through Sainik Security Services, a manpower agency based in Varanasi, to handle housekeeping and cash-related work. What remains unclear is who authorised this shift to a third party agency, and whether the original SOP was revised to account for outside staff joining the process.

According to an India Today report, SIT's preliminary report named six counting room staff hired through the Sainik Security Services, namedly, Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey and Ramashankar Mishra. Investigators quoted in that report said each of them had been brought in on the recommendation of people connected to the trust, a pathway that bypassed the checks meant to keep the donation counting process transparent.

Of the six, the case against Manish Kumar Yadav has drawn particular attention in the SIT's findings. Investigators allege he was recommended for the role by his uncle, Ramashankar Yadav, described as someone who wielded significant sway over how donations were counted. The uncle is said to have instructed Yadav to route his contractual paperwork through SBI employee Ratnesh Chaturvedi, following which Yadav began working in the counting room from April 15, 2026, as per the India Today report. Investigators further stated that security camera recordings from May 11 onward showed him taking donation money on multiple occasions.

Separately, two SBI employees are reportedly being examined by the SIT for allegedly staying silent about the embezzlement and overlooking warning signs, although the precise nature of their alleged lapses has not been detailed publicly.

SBI had actually raised concerns about irregularities roughly three months before the theft became public knowledge, and had pushed for some of the outsourced staff to be replaced, The Print had reported. That suggestion, however, was reportedly shelved after members of the temple trust objected to it.

The warning signs first surfaced when daily cash deposits started coming in below the usual weekly average. Outlook Business has not been able to independently confirm the actual daily collection figures at the temple, or how sharply they fell when SBI first raised the alarm with temple authorities.

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, which functions as an independent body overseeing the shrine, has pushed back against the allegations and denied any mishandling of donations. Earlier, in a Facebook video, the trust's general secretary Champat Rai said the counting process, along with the counting room itself, was regularly audited by trustees, staff and some SBI personnel. "This work continues for several days. This is what is happening nowadays. No one has noticed any discrepancy yet," he said.

How the Story Broke

The controversy became public on June 7, 2026, after Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav alleged that crores of rupees from temple donations were unaccounted for.

Within days, on June 13, the Uttar Pradesh government responded by setting up a three-member SIT to look into the claims. Since then, concerns have widened beyond cash to include how the temple handles jewellery, gold and silver offered by devotees, with petitions now pending before the Supreme Court seeking a federally monitored probe.

The temple sits in Ayodhya, a city regarded as the birthplace of Lord Ram, on land where a 16th century mosque, the Babri Masjid, once stood before it was torn down by Hindu mobs in 1992, an event that set off riots claiming close to 2,000 lives. What followed was a decades long legal battle over the site, which the Supreme Court finally settled in 2019 by handing the land over for the temple's construction, while directing that a separate plot be allotted for a mosque.

This dispute shaped the trajectory of Indian politics for years and became tightly woven into the BJP's rise through the 1990s. Building the temple had long been one of the party's central election promises, and its opening in January 2024 was widely believed to have boosted Modi's standing ahead of the general election held months later. However, that expectation did not fully play out. The BJP lost the Ayodhya seat and its tally in Uttar Pradesh, which has traditionally been a BJP stronghold, was nearly halved.

In the time since the temple's inauguration, the three-storey temple, built across 2.7 acres, has grown into one of the country's foremost pilgrimage destinations, drawing millions visitors every year. Even though an independent trust runs the shrine rather than the government directly, opposition parties have been demanding accountability from PM Modi and the BJP over the embezzlement allegations.