As Maharashtra is roiled by its own temple theft allegations, it may have all begun with something far smaller – a probe into complaints that some staffers of Mumbai’s Siddhivinayak Temple were taking money from devotees to slip them into the VVIP ‘darshan’ queue.
The sum involved in the alleged scandal has since been climbing, as the Opposition spots an opportunity against the BJP, which is already on the back foot over the Ayodhya temple donation theft. MNS chief Raj Thackeray, who has taken the lead, puts the figure siphoned off at “Rs 18 crore every year”.
The authorities at Siddhivinayak Temple – one of Maharashtra’s richest and most visited, with thousands coming daily and lakhs during festivals – however, maintain that the accused have been caught and the theft checked.
Temple trustee Rahul Londhe said they stumbled upon the alleged theft when he and other trust members, who had taken over in late 2023, were scanning CCTV footage to identify employees involved in taking money for VIP darshan. “We scrutinized several CCTV cameras and found that some employees were stealing from the donation box. We alerted the police and they arrested the accused,” Londhe said.
Earlier this year, he added, suspicions rose again as the trustees were puzzled by the fact that donation collections remained flat even as devotee numbers rose.
Shiv Sena leader and Trust President Sada Sarvankar told The Indian Express that they observed the donation figures for months before he and another trustee, Bhaskar Shetty, decided to approach the Anti Corruption Bureau for help. “Vishwas Nangre-Patil, who was in-charge (of the bureau at that time), provided us with a few men to inspect the possibility of theft.”
While they didn’t find anything suspicious initially, Sarvankar said, they kept up their vigil on the advice of the investigators. The focus was narrowed to the weekly donation counting process, he said and soon, during one session, a CCTV camera was found blocked.
In March this year, temple employee Rajendra Pendurkar was caught allegedly removing cash from a donation box kept in the priests’ room, while authorised representatives were absent. Further scrutiny, the trustees said, revealed that several other employees were doing the same.
“It is impossible that a single person will work on this alone. We traced the racket and found eight others… Along with these, another 19 employees have been suspended for activities such as taking money to give quick darshan etc,” Londhe said.
An FIR regarding this was registered at Dadar Police Station on March 20. Police subsequently recovered Rs 80,000 and said CCTV footage showed individuals repeatedly removing cash from a small donation box over about 10 days. The eight people who were arrested are out on bail, with a chargesheet filed in the case.
The trust believes the “racket” was running for at least six months before it was detected, an inference Londhe said they drew from the rise in donation collections after the scam was uncovered.
On paper, the process to secure donations is elaborate. Around 30 donation boxes are opened weekly, on Wednesdays. Each is then sealed with the signatures of the financial officer and the executive officer; emptied under a senior administrative officer’s supervision; counted in the presence of select employees, a government-appointed deputy executive officer and bank representatives; and finally, the cash deposited in a bank immediately after.
The figure of Rs 18 crore annual theft is contested by the temple, neither does it appear in either the March 20 FIR or the chargesheet. Raj Thackeray’s argument is that weekly donations before the alleged theft was detected were below Rs 50 lakh. After the arrests and tighter monitoring, these reportedly rose to around Rs 1.5 crore. His sum is an extrapolation of that roughly Rs 1 crore weekly jump, over a year.
Police sources said that as far as they are concerned, the matter is over. “We arrested eight individuals, all had siphoned off Rs 10,000 each. A chargesheet has been filed. If the temple trust feels the case needs to be re-investigated, they can approach the court,” a senior official at the Dadar Police Station said.
The Indian Express reported Tuesday that the Law and Judiciary Department, which can order an audit and falls under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, has sought a detailed report on the Siddhivinayak trust’s finances.
The Indian Express reported Tuesday that the Law and Judiciary Department, which can order an audit and falls under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, has sought a detailed report on the Siddhivinayak trust’s finances.
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