Lucknow, June 29: The case of alleged theft of donations from the Ram Temple in Ayodhya has now taken a new turn. The Faizabad Bar Association of Ayodhya has decided that no member of its association will represent the eight accused arrested in connection with the misuse of temple donations.
The association has also warned that lawyers who appear in court to defend the accused in violation of this decision will be fined Rs 5 lakh.
This decision was taken in the general meeting of the Bar Association held today, and the association members have expressed strong anger against the theft of donations given by devotees at the Ram temple.
During the meeting, several lawyers demanded that Champat Roy, Anil Mishra and Gopal Rao, who are identified with the management of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust but are not named as accused in the FIR, leave Ayodhya. If the three do not leave the city within the next three days, the lawyers have warned that they will launch a massive movement by completely shutting down Ayodhya and restricting entry into the city.
Explaining the decision of the Bar Association, Shailendra Jaiswal, secretary of the association, said, “The theft of the Ram temple offering has deeply hurt our sentiments. Therefore, the lawyers of Faizabad have unanimously agreed not to argue on behalf of the arrested accused.” According to the resolution passed by the association, if any lawyer appears in court on behalf of the accused despite this decision, they will have to pay a fine of Rs. 5 lakh.
The eight accused arrested in the Ram temple donation theft case have been identified as Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lav Kush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ram Shankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Ramashankar alias Tinu Yadav. According to investigators, these eight people were involved in counting cash and valuables coming as donations to the Ayodhya Ram temple. They were arrested on charges of misappropriating the Ram temple donation and were remanded in judicial custody till today.
As part of the investigation, police teams had simultaneously conducted search operations at the residences of all the eight accused on Sunday. During the raids, the authorities seized important documents, financial details and other materials that would help in tracing the illegal transfer of money.