A preliminary report by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has identified Avinash Shukla as the prime accused in the alleged theft of devotees' offerings at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, linking him to a suspected 40-day racket involving nearly 70 instances of pilferage from the donation-counting system.
'Earlier, people used to hand money directly to priests after a ritual, and priests would keep it in their own pockets. We completely stopped that practice.'
