LUCKNOW: A day before the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust’s crucial meeting to decide on the resignations of general secretary Champat Rai and trustee Anil Mishra over the Ram temple donation embezzlement row, trust treasurer Govind Dev Giri broke his silence on Sunday, asserting that he had no role in the daily counting process and that all audit reports were “safe”.Facing questions over accountability as the treasurer, Giri said the local trustees supervised the donation counting and urged a fair investigation to bring the guilty to justice.Breaking his silence on the donations row, Giri said in a signed letter, “The local trustees oversee the donation counting process.”On June 27, Giri issued a letter confirming that Rai and Mishra had resigned, taking moral responsibility for the donations theft row that snowballed into a major political controversy.Since then, Giri has been under the scanner, with questions being raised over his accountability as the treasurer in the alleged embezzlement of donations.“We are neither for nor against anyone. We stand with the truth and urge the investigators to bring the culprits to justice,” Giri said in the letter dated July 4.“The theft incidents have shattered the hearts of the devotees of Lord Ram. While counting cash offered by millions of devotees, some individuals committed the heinous crime of stealing it,” Giri said.“We all are deeply hurt, saddened and ashamed. This has been going on for a long time,” he added, hoping that the truth would come out with the blessings of Lord Ram.The treasurer also claimed that he neither lobbied for any post nor took a single rupee from the Trust to meet his frequent travel expenses.The controversy erupted on June 7 after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram temple, a charge then rejected by Champat Rai, who said, “Nothing noteworthy came to light during the ongoing internal audit”.“The extent of the unfortunate theft, when and how it occurred, is part of the investigation. The probe should be impartial,” he said.“The court will do its job. We have faith in the SIT and the police. No culprit should be spared. Everyone should have full faith in the investigation and the judiciary. We are all with the truth,” Giri added.
