New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday (June 30) demanded the arrest of the people associated with various trusts of the Ram temple including Champat Rai and Nripendra Misra over the alleged embezzlement of donation money. It also demanded the custodial interrogation of the temple staff members already arrested in the case, reported Economic Times.The party also condemned the preventive arrest of its party delegation led by Uttar Pradesh president Ajay Rai just before they planned to visit the Ram temple in Ayodhya on Tuesday.“In the city of Ayodhya, there are instances of fund embezzlement and land scams taking place. Our demand is that the small employees who have been sent to jail should be taken into police remand and interrogated. Cases should be registered against all these people – Nripendra Misra, Anil Mishra, Gopal Rao, Champat Rai and Govind Giri – and they should be arrested. The trust should be immediately dissolved and people nominated by the Shankaracharyas should be included in the trust, who are connected to religion,” said Rai in a statement following his arrest.Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said that the alleged theft of funds meant that the temple trust violated the standard operating procedure prepared with State Bank of India for counting donations.Shrinate also highlighted the complaints from various devotees who have said that they still hadn’t received receipts from the trust for their donations.Following the preventive arrest of the delegation on Tuesday morning it was finally allowed to offer prayers at Hanumangarhi and the Ram Temple under police escort in late night.The BJP government is trying to hide something by first preventing our leaders from offering prayers and later permitting darshan under heavy security. What was the rationale behind it?” said state Congress media department chairman and former minister C.P. Rai, reported Indian Express.The Congress had earlier said in a statement that a delegation led by Rai and comprising MPs Kishori Lal Sharma, Rakesh Rathor, Ujjwal Raman Singh and Tanuj Punia was going to visit the temple to pay their respects and raise the corruption matter. The party had reportedly informed the local administration about their visit.“How can the government be selective with devotees? Just a few days ago, they facilitated VIP darshan for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal, while our delegation was denied darshan. They not only indulge in donation theft but have also made darshan a selective affair,” said Rai.An FIR was filed on June 26 against eight persons at the Ram Janmbhoomi Police Station in Ayodhya in connection with the alleged temple trust fund embezzlement. This FIR, containing charges including theft, criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy, came several days after three different police complaints – including one by a former kar sevak – and after a damning SIT report and public outcry on the matter. All eight accused, from the cash-counting staff, have been remanded to 14-day judicial custody. The case will next be heard on July 13. The Ayodhya Bar Association has said that its lawyers will not be defending any of the accused in the case.Two senior functionaries of the Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust – general secretary Champat Rai and trustee Anil Mishra – have resigned from their positions, but they have not been named in the FIR. The Trust was set up on the directions of the Supreme Court, and its constitution was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.