Former Badrinath Temple Officer Arrested In Donation Theft Probe

The probe into the alleged Badrinath Temple donation theft case is gaining pace as former temple officer of Badrinath Temple Rajendra Chauhan has been arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) following four hours of questioning on Friday.

For further investigation, Chauhan will be produced before the Court tomorrow, July 18.

Chauhan is one of the key suspects in the case and is being questioned on the basis of CCTV footage collected during the investigation.

The CCTV footage allegedly shows Chauhan collecting cash bundles and keeping them in his pocket on June 22, June 25 and June 29, following which the SIT summoned him for questioning. The SIT is examining the footage and other evidence as part of its probe into the alleged theft of donation money from the Badrinath temple.

The step comes after the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged theft of donations at the Badrinath Temple has received the 18-page internal inquiry report prepared by the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) while fresh CCTV footage has led SIT to identify more suspects in the case, said Uttarakhand Police on Thursday.

According to Uttarakhand Police, the BKTC has handed over its 18-page internal inquiry report to the SIT as part of the ongoing investigation into the alleged theft of temple donations.

The SIT has fully recovered CCTV footage from June 29 and July 2, which was to be investigated, police said earlier. The SIT had recovered CCTV footage from June 22 and June 25, which has already been analysed as part of the probe.

On July 14, a committee constituted to examine the alleged theft of donations at the Badrinath Temple visited Badrinath Dham and reviewed the process of how donations are handled and transported and arrangements within the counting room.

Meanwhile, SIT probing the Badrinath donation theft case questioned the Temple Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sohan Singh Rangad and his Personal Assistant, Atul Dimri, to probe gaps in oversight. Simultaneously, investigators embedded themselves in the temple's CCTV control room, systematically reviewing operational logs and tracking how daily donations were handled.

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