Who is Jagdish Aphale? IIT Bombay alum appointed Ram Temple Trust secretary amid donation theft row
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Who is Jagdish Aphale? IIT Bombay alum appointed Ram Temple Trust secretary amid donation theft row")
The Ayodhya Ram temple trust has appointed IIT Bombay alumnus Jagdish Aphale as its secretary Photograph: (X)
The Ayodhya Ram temple trust has appointed IIT Bombay alumnus Jagdish Aphale as its first secretary and joint signatory for bank accounts amid allegations of donation theft. The move aims to strengthen financial oversight and accountability following resignations of senior trust members.
In an attempt to restore people's trust in the Ram Temple trust, The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has appointed IIT Bombay alumnus Jagdish Aphale as its secretary and made a joint signatory to financial transactions. This comes almost 20 days after the trust appointed retired Indian Forest Service officer Krishna Mohan as the interim general secretary.
"For banking purposes, the joint signatories are me and Aphale. The board of trustees has approved it," interim general secretary Krishna Mohan told media.
Who is Jagdsish Aphale?
Aafle is from Pune and holds a BTech in Electrical Engineering and an MTech from IIT Bombay. Aphale also supervised construction at the temple complex for nearly four years as a project engineer. He reportedly came on board as an honorary project manager after his name was recommended by the RSS, according to PTI. He currently lives in Ayodhya with his wife on the premises of the trust. He will also assist the board as an external expert. He has been privy to the trust’s internal processes over the past fortnight as part of his integration. According to reports, his name was proposed at the trust’s July 6 meeting.
What is Ram temple theft row?
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In June, 2026, massive allegations of donation theft from Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya Ram Temple was made on social media. Just two days after this, former accounts team supervisor of the temple trust identified as Mahipal Singh appeared in an explosive YouTube interview and said alleged massive embezzlement of donations, lack of audits and proper security. He also revealed that donation include both cash and kind like gold and silver - which are easily being siphoned off.
By the end of the month, amid widescale outrage, the the Uttar Pradesh police registered an official First Information Report (FIR), and the state government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the matter. The SIT reportedly found out that several people employed at the police outpost counting site to sort currency notes, bank officisls as well as senior member of the trust were part of the big theft.
Eight individuals namely Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Maneesh Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava, and Ram Shankar Yadav were arrested and sent to jail. As the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust remained under immense pressure, top members including General Secretary Champat Rai, trustee Anil Kumar Mishra and senior VHP leader Gopal Rao were either removed or they resigned.
The case, meanwhile, reached the Supreme Court after a batch of separate public interest petitions asked the apex court to intervene. In its initial observations, the Bench explicitly warned all political parties and litigants to not politicise the temple donation row. The court rejected the initial probe setup and ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to reconstitute the Special Investigation Team (SIT). They mandated that it must be led by senior, highly experienced Indian Police Service (IPS) officers rather than IAS bureaucrats. During the 27 July hearing, the court ordered that an independent forensic auditor be immediately added to the SIT. The Supreme Court ordered the newly reconstituted SIT to submit its interim status report before the next scheduled date of hearing on August 10. The exact total amount stolen is still being verified but the theft is being considered to be worth multi-million rupees.
