Ayodhya: A former IAS officer has alleged that a gold-plated copy of the Ramcharitmanas, donated by his family to the Ram Temple and valued at about Rs 5 crore, was moved from the shrine, adding a new and politically sensitive dimension to the continuing controversy over the handling of offerings at one of India’s most closely watched religious institutions.
S Lakshminarayanan, a former civil servant, has said that his family donated the ornate copy of the Hindu scripture to the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in April 2024. According to his allegation, the copy was later shifted from the temple premises, raising questions over how high-value donations are recorded, displayed and safeguarded.
The Trust has not described the matter as theft. Lakshminarayanan has said he was told by Trust general secretary Champat Rai that every offering made to the temple cannot be displayed inside the mandir. That explanation, however, has come at a moment when the Trust is already under sharp public and political scrutiny over alleged irregularities in the handling of donations.
A High-Value Offering, Now at the Centre of Questions
The allegation stands out because of who has raised it and because of the nature of the donation. A former IAS officer publicly questioning the whereabouts of a religious text reportedly valued in crores gives the issue a seriousness beyond routine temple administration.
The Ramcharitmanas, composed by Goswami Tulsidas, is among the most revered texts in the Ram devotional tradition. A gold-plated copy donated to the Ram Temple was therefore not merely a valuable object but also a symbolic offering linked to the temple’s larger religious and national significance.
Lakshminarayanan’s claim does not, by itself, establish wrongdoing. But it has intensified demands for greater clarity from the Trust on the custody of expensive gifts, the rules governing their display, and the documentation maintained when such items are moved or stored elsewhere.
Donation Theft Probe Forms the Backdrop
The allegation comes while authorities are investigating a separate case involving alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram Temple. A Special Investigation Team has been examining whether offerings, including cash, gold and silver, were siphoned off from the donation-counting process.
Earlier concerns had also been raised over donated silver bars and bricks, including a silver brick associated with Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray. The SIT has reportedly dismissed some speculation around a large-scale disappearance of silver bars, but the broader investigation has continued to widen.
Investigators are also looking into whether stolen gold and silver ornaments may have been melted and converted into other forms to make tracing them harder. Multiple searches have been carried out, and several people linked to the donation-counting process have been arrested.
Trust Under Pressure to Rebuild Confidence
The controversy has placed the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust under pressure to demonstrate that the systems around donations are transparent, auditable and secure. Trust treasurer Govind Dev Giri has previously said he had no role in the counting of offerings and has called for an impartial investigation into the alleged embezzlement.
The Trust has also moved to tighten its donation-counting procedures. New measures reportedly include stricter screening of staff, greater security inside the counting area and changes intended to reduce the possibility of cash or valuables being concealed.
For devotees, the dispute is about more than accounting. The Ram Temple has received offerings from across the country, many of them made with deep religious emotion. Allegations concerning the movement or handling of valuable donations therefore risk eroding confidence unless the Trust offers clear records and explanations.
The immediate question is narrow: where exactly is the gold-plated Ramcharitmanas donated by Lakshminarayanan’s family, and why was it moved? The larger question is more consequential: whether the institution overseeing the temple can create a donation management system that matches the scale, symbolism and public trust invested in Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir.
