Three of eight people arrested for stealing donations and valuables from temples in the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust complex in Ayodhya were placed in police custody on Wednesday for additional questioning. Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra and Karunesh Pandey were taken from the district jail after a court approved the remand. The move allows investigators to pursue leads from earlier statements, especially those involving main suspect Avinash Shukla. Officers are jointly questioning the trio and checking their accounts against evidence already collected. The focus remains on how stolen funds were divided and the broader conspiracy. Later, police teams took the men to search sites linked to the case, expecting to recover cash and items. Eight individuals have been detained so far, including Shukla and others named in the complaint. A special team formed by the Uttar Pradesh government has led the inquiry, which has uncovered repeated thefts over several weeks and pointed to lapses in temple security and donation handling. More than Rs 79 lakh has been recovered. The trust has made administrative changes following the probe.
