New Delhi, July 9 (IANS) Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday questioned the functioning of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the alleged embezzlement of donations made at Ayodhya’s Ram Temple, asking for a probe into the call detail records of the accused and seeking accountability of the temple trust’s senior officials.

However, the Uttar Pradesh Ministers hit back, saying that Akhilesh Yadav should first seek blessings at the Ram Temple before making such statements.

Taking to X, the SP chief asked: “What kind of restriction is this where the police are opening the door to welcome the accused? How can someone whose name isn’t in the interim report be in the final one?”

In a reference to the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust’s former General Secretary Champat Rai, whose driver, Tinnu Yadav, has been arrested in the case, Akhilesh Yadav said: “If the driver gets trapped, the owner gets trapped too.”

“If the CDR (call detail records) is pulled, it’ll show that the most calls came from BJP folks themselves – those who want to leave BJP and come over here,” he said.

Asking for the “dissolution” of the whole trust, he said: “Mere resignation whitewashing won’t cut it. For all those who’ve stepped down, a judicial probe must be set up on every land deal and other actions signed off by them. Resignation shouldn’t become an escape route.”

Akhilesh Yadav made the statement while referring to the resignations of Champat Rai and former Trustee Anil Mishra.

Reacting to the remarks of the SP chief, Uttar Pradesh Minister and SBSP President O.P. Rajbhar said: “He should first visit and seek the blessings of Lord Ram before making such statements. The people of the country know that Akhilesh Yadav has not visited Ayodhya for ‘darshan’, and therefore, the public is not taking his remarks seriously.”

Targeting the Samajwadi Party, Minister Manoj Pandey added: “Those people should stop advising Sanatanis whose hands are stained with the blood of innocent ‘karsevaks’. The country does not want to hear from such people.”

Minister Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary asserted that the state government has constituted an SIT to ensure a “fair investigation”. He accused the Opposition of having a “negative agenda”.

“They always make such remarks about our religion, saints, and Hindus that they create distrust towards this system in society. That has been their agenda. If you look at the history of the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, they have always worked to insult Sanatan Dharma, saints, and our monasteries and temples,” he told IANS.

Minister Sanjay Nishad said: “When Ram Temple was being built, questions were raised on faith. Now, Lord Ram is being used for politics.”

–IANS

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