Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh) [India], June 27 : Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleging that the ruling party prioritises "wealth over faith" and cautioned that Lord Shri Ram would "never forgive" those who played with the sentiments of devotees.
"People have long felt that their (BJP) focus here is more on wealth than on religion; for them, wealth is religion--wealth comes first, faith later. This shouldn't be about any single individual. The CM claims to have set a world record for the number of visits to Ayodhya. Was he unaware of the situation?...The Sindhi community, for instance, has alleged that they had donated silver, diamonds, or made anonymous offerings. Lord Shri Ram can never forgive those who have thus toyed with people's faith," he told reporters here.
A court in Ayodhya on Friday sent eight accused to judicial custody till June 29 in the alleged Ram Mandir donation embezzlement case.
The accused were produced before the local court after being arrested.
KC Verma, Prosecution Officer at the Ayodhya Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Court, told reporters that all eight accused had been remanded to judicial custody till Monday and would be produced before the court again on June 29.
"In total, Rs 79,85,493 was recovered from them, except for one accused, Subhash. Nothing was recovered from him, though he was involved in the conspiracy. Different amounts were recovered from the others," he said.
"The special court dealing with the Prevention of Corruption Act was not sitting today; it wasn't a working day. Since today was a holiday, the remand was granted until Monday. The individuals involved include public servants, people who draw salaries from the government, and there are also many SBI employees among them. There are about five or six from SBI," he added.
Verma said eight accused have been arrested-- Avinash Shukla, Ankalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Rama Shankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava, and Rama Shankar (alias Tinnu).
Police had lodged a case at Ram Janmabhoomi Police Station over alleged financial misappropriation involving the donation of funds at the Ram Temple.
The FIR was registered on June 25.
The complaint was lodged by Krishanmohan, a member of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.
The complaint accused the individuals of theft, embezzlement, and planned misappropriation of funds donated by devotees.