Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh): Karpatri Maharaj, a prominent priest of Ayodhya, associated with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, who also participated in the kar sewa in December 1992, has now spoken against members of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, particularly Champat Rai, Anil Mishra and Gopal Rao.Kar sevaks were Hindu volunteers mobilised by organisations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), who brought down the 16th-century Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. Speaking to The Wire about the investigation currently being led by a Special Investigation Team (SIT), Karpatri Maharaj said: “Since Champat Rai was at the helm, then he will have to take responsibility. Now he has tendered his resignation 15 days after the SIT was constituted, and that too on moral grounds. Eighty-year-old Champat Rai ji should have learnt something from former chief minister Kalyan Singh, who resigned immediately after the Babri Masjid demolition.”Also read: Ram Temple Donation Probe to Include Financial Forensic Audit, Investigate SBI Staff“It’s due to the mili-bhagat (collusion) of everyone. Every individual has a share [in the temple trust scam]. Moreover, when the trust was set up by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) following the Supreme Court order, then for any such entity under the purview of the Union government, the probe should have been conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The SIT here represents the state government, so can the SIT probe an entity set up by the Union government?” he asked. While the trust had been set up in February 2020 following a gazette notification by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the ministry, as per a report by The Telegraph, had also refused in 2024 to divulge information related to the trust under the RTI Act on the grounds that the “information was confidential and sensitive in nature.” Emphasising the fact that priests associated with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement have been sidelined over the years as a new cabal took over the trust, Karpatri Maharaj told The Wire, “A sense of arrogance has crept in, a form of dictatorship has taken over. More than Champat Rai, the liability also lies with treasurer Govind Giri, who should have known where the money was coming from and where it was going.” Also read: Know Your Ram Temple Trust: Who Are The People Officially Representing the Modi Govt to Ensure Oversight?On July 5, 2026, a letter written by the trust treasurer Govind Giri has been doing the rounds on social media, in which he issued a statement claiming that he “had got nothing to do with the gifts offered to the temple and, as far as donations were concerned, the Nyas employees would count cash as per the SOP along with bank employees.” Recalling an incident when President Droupadi Murmu had been invited for an event at the Ram Mandir, Karpatri Maharaj alleged that he was never issued a pass to attend the event. “If people known to me come to Ayodhya and I make a request for passes, I’m told that it will take a month. But if people from Kerala and Karnataka come to visit the temple, they are issued a pass immediately with the help of a dalal (middleman).”When asked who these middlemen were, Karpatri told this reporter, “I can’t take names, but their number had become so large that many of them became lakhpatis. So even in the system of issuing passes, certain people were making money.”