Ayodhya, June 30 -- The main branch of the State Bank of India (SBI) in Ayodhya's Naya Ghat became the focal point of the investigation into alleged irregularities in Ram Temple donation collections as the police spent four hours on Monday collecting evidence from bank officials. The branch houses the accounts of seven of the eight men arrested in connection with the allegations, a police officer probing the case said, as well as the main account of the temple trust. The account of eight accused is housed at the Faizabad branch of the SBI. "The Ayodhya police today visited the bank to seek account details of all eight accused in the donation-money scam. The bank has provided details of their accounts," said branch manager Anoop Tripathi. A bank official, on the condition of anonymity, said the bank first raised concerns about possible irregularities with the temple funds three months ago but added that the warning went unheeded. The bank had informed the trust as well as the Ayodhya Police at the time, the official said. "Trust officials allegedly intervened and shielded the staff. Despite the bank's warning, the trust took no action and the same employees continued to handle the counting work," the bank official quoted above said. HT reached out to Ayodhya Police but it refused to comment on the matter. Two senior trust officials, Champat Rai and Anil Mishra, have already resigned. They have connections with some of the eight arrested men. The trust had assigned the responsibility of counting donation money to the SBI but a bank official said that some trust officials had put pressure on the bank to include some people in the counting team. "They were powerful, we could not refuse.They are now under the scanner for pressuring SBI to include certain people for the cash-counting work," said a senior bank official on the condition of anonymity. The cash counting process involved at least nine members of the SBI, some employees of a Varanasi-based agency and some members of the trust, said a trust official who did not wished to be named. Investigators also pointed at possible problems within the cash counting team. The counting staff was never asked to wear dress without pockets and no government officials were ever included to supervise counting work, said the bank official. The police team also visited Canara Bank. The trust has accounts at the Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank as well. The Supreme Court on Monday declined to urgently list petitions seeking a CBI-led multi-agency probe into the alleged embezzlement of donations received at the Ram temple in Ayodhya, observing that "heavens are not going to fall" if the matter is taken up after a few days. A bench of justices MM Sundresh and Sheel Nagu said that the pleas could be listed in due course once the registry and the competent authority were satisfied about the urgency of the matter....