Indian authorities have arrested eight people connected to the cash-counting operations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh) after a special investigation team found widespread violations of financial safeguards and evidence of systematic theft from donation boxes. The SIT, formed on June 13 on the orders of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, found that security procedures were routinely ignored — including the removal of CCTV footage after 45 days rather than the mandated 180, a failure to frisk staff entering and leaving counting rooms, and the handing of keys to multiple donation boxes to the former driver of the trust's general secretary. Nearly ₹80 lakh in cash and some foreign currency have been recovered from six of the eight accused, who have been charged with theft, criminal breach of trust, and criminal conspiracy under Indian law. The scandal has drawn sharp political criticism, with opposition Congress leaders calling on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to explain his silence, demanding that the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust — the government-constituted body overseeing the temple — be dissolved, and calling for a Supreme Court-supervised inquiry; Congress figures noted that daily donations to the temple have reportedly dropped from ₹10–15 lakh to around ₹80,000 since the scandal broke.