As Siddhivinayak joins temple donation row list, Fadnavis orders probe

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has ordered a probe into alleged irregularities in the handling of donations at Mumbai’s famous Siddhivinayak temple, making it the latest prominent shrine to face allegations over the management of devotees’ offerings.

Fadnavis has directed officials to examine the temple’s records for the past five years and submit a report at the earliest, officials said. The directive came after a delegation from the Siddhivinayak Temple Trust met the chief minister and presented details of the shrine’s collections between 2023 and 2026.

The controversy erupted after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray alleged that around Rs 18 crore was being siphoned off annually from donations made at the temple. Deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde had earlier sought an independent inquiry and directed officials to initiate the process.

Sada Sarvankar, chairman of the Siddhivinayak Temple Trust and a leader of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, said nine employees had been arrested in connection with the alleged theft. The temple’s trustees have denied wrongdoing and attributed the alleged thefts to employees appointed during the previous government.

The Siddhivinayak controversy comes amid a series of allegations involving donation management at prominent temples across the country, beginning with the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

At the Ram Mandir, allegations of theft and embezzlement of devotees’ offerings led to an SIT probe and arrests. Investigators examining the donation-counting process found allegations of theft on at least 70 occasions over a 40-day period, with the incidents reportedly occurring during evening counting shifts. The probe has also raised questions over supervision and safeguards in the handling of donations.

Questions were also raised over donated silver at the Ayodhya temple, with allegations that around 200 kg of silver bars and bricks had gone missing. The SIT, however, subsequently claimed the silver had not been stolen, finding that most of it had been melted or sent for minting.

The Ram Mandir controversy was followed by allegations at the Sri Krishna Janmasthan temple in Mathura. Dinesh Falahari Maharaj, a petitioner in the Krishna Janmabhoomi case, alleged in June that donation money and jewellery offered by devotees had been misappropriated for years. He also alleged that CCTV cameras were switched off during the opening of donation boxes and counting of offerings and sought a CBI probe.

The temple management rejected the allegations as baseless and lodged a complaint against Falahari Maharaj. He subsequently withdrew his demand for a CBI probe, saying he had no concrete evidence to support his earlier claims and that the existing arrangements were satisfactory. The temple trust, however, had itself sought an official inquiry to clear the allegations.

In the wake of the Ayodhya controversy, the Mathura temple also tightened its donation-counting procedures. Cash, gold, silver and other offerings are now to be videographed and photographed during counting, with local shopkeepers appointed as observers alongside temple officials. The shrine receives donations of around Rs 1 crore a month, according to temple officials.

In Madhya Pradesh, the Maa Baglamukhi Temple at Nalkheda has faced allegations of financial irregularities and unauthorised collection of devotees’ donations. The state government ordered an inquiry after complaints that a private committee was collecting cash and gold and silver offerings through private bank accounts, separately from the government-appointed temple management committee.

Badrinath Dham in Uttarakhand has also come under scrutiny. An employee of the Shri Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee was suspended after an internal preliminary inquiry found alleged irregularities in the handling of donations, following which police registered an FIR against him.

At Tirupati, too, allegations have been raised over theft from the parakamani, the temple’s donation-counting centre. The issue concerns the alleged diversion or theft of devotees’ offerings and is separate from other controversies involving the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams.

The cases differ in their nature and stage of investigation, and the allegations at several of the temples remain unproven. But their recurrence has put the systems used by major shrines to collect, count, record and safeguard devotees’ offerings under growing scrutiny.

The Siddhivinayak inquiry will now examine five years of records and determine whether the alleged Rs 18-crore annual siphoning took place, who may have been responsible and whether there were supervisory or systemic failures in the handling of the temple’s donations.

With PTI inputs