AYODHYA, July 7 -- Confirming the exit of Champat Rai and Anil Mishra as general secretary and trustee, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra, at its first meeting since the Ram temple donation controversy erupted last month, on Monday announced that Krishna Mohan, a trustee, has been given additional duties as interim general secretary of the Trust. It also said sweeping reforms, including changes in the donation management system were on the cards, and decided to appoint a chief executive officer, who will be selected by a three-member committee comprising Justice (retd) Pramod Kohli, Lt General (retd) Vishnu Kant Chaturvedi and Suresh Haware. The Trust also said it has decided to remove Gopal Nagarkatte from the list of special invitees. Briefing the media after the three-hour meeting held at the Ram Janmabhoomi complex in Ayodhya, Swami Govind Dev Giri, treasurer of the Trust, said the bylaws of the Trust did not leave any scope for accepting or rejecting resignations as they were deemed to be accepted once they were submitted. He also said the Trust will hold its next meeting on July 22. "By that time, we expect the final report of the Special Investigation Team to be submitted," he added. Elaborating on the circumstances leading to the departure of Rai and Mishra, Giri said, "Given the prevailing circumstances, a critical situation arose: our general secretary Champat Rai, and trustee Anil Ji Mishra submitted their resignations. Champat Rai was deeply pained; he felt it inappropriate to continue in his role until justice is fully served--meaning the culprits are apprehended and receive appropriate punishment. Driven by this sentiment, he tendered his resignation--a matter that was not ours to simply accept or reject. K Parasaran raised a significant point: under the Trust's constitution, a resignation is deemed accepted the moment it is submitted." The Trust chose not to be harsh on Rai, acknowledged his good work, described him as untainted as well as a victim of being unaware. Giri also tried to address rumours related to articles (gold and silver) donated by devotees to Ram Mandir. "All such articles are with the Trust. We have maintained a register with complete details of all such 2926 articles donated by devotees," Giri said. "If anyone (who has donated) wants to know about the status of his article (donated to Trust) can come and ask the Trust about it," he added. "We are being told that it was not just the donation box that was stolen. Many other items were stolen. We have brought the register of all those items, which we will show you," Giri said "We are being asked 'where is the Ramayana, where are the Charan Padukas'. We have a registered list of 2926 such items," he said. "An extraordinary situation has arisen today regarding the grand temple of Ram Lalla," said Giri when he began his briefing. He said it was decided to advance the Trust meeting scheduled for July 11 to July 6. "The quorum was complete. Chairman Mahant Nritya Gopal Das was also present," he added. Giri also attacked the Opposition for casting aspersions on the Trust. "Those who fired on Karsevaks (in Ayodhya) and those who denied the existence of Lord Ram in the Supreme Court are today teaching us," he said. "The trustees are deeply hurt and concerned by the irregularities in the counting process of the offerings and express serious regret over this unfortunate incident," a press statement from the Trust said. "Upon learning about this matter, it was found that as soon as the irregularities came to notice, the trust officials gathered preliminary information and requested the Uttar Pradesh government to conduct an impartial probe. At the request of the trust, the government immediately formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) so that an impartial, comprehensive, and fact-based inquiry into the entire matter could be conducted," it added. The statement further said, "Out of the total amount of Rs.3,264 crore received through the Nidhi Samarpan Abhiyan (donation drive) and corpus donations, Rs.2,370 crore has been utilised for construction and capital expenditure. From the beginning until March 31, 2026, a total offering of Rs.582 crore was received, out of which Rs.391 crore was utilized for operational expenses. The remaining balances are available in bank accounts. All this financial information has been presented by the trust to the media from time to time." The controversy first surfaced on June 7 when Samajwadi Party leader Tej Narayan 'Pawan' Pandey alleged that donations worth Rs.5 crore to Rs.7.5 crore were siphoned off from temple offerings. The SIT - comprising Lucknow divisional commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, inspector general of police (Lucknow range) Kiran S and special secretary (finance) Neel Ratan - was constituted on June 13 and submitted its interim report on June 23. It received a 15-day extension on July 1. The SIT alleged that a portion of the offerings was siphoned off before being deposited into the temple's designated bank account, leading to the arrest of eight employees associated with handling and counting donations on June 26. Last month, a first information report was registered against eight named accused and other unidentified people under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 306, 316(5), 317(4), 317(5), 61 and 3(5), relating to offences such as criminal breach of trust, cheating, theft and criminal conspiracy, along with Section 13(1)(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The eight men arrested so far include Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Ram Shankar Yadav 'Tinnu', Manish Yadav, Subhash Srivastava, Avinash Shukla, Rama Shankar Mishra, and Karunesh Pandey. The police seized Rs.79,85,493 from seven of the eight arrested men, recovering money from bathrooms, haystacks and cow dung cakes The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra was constituted on February 5, 2020, following the Supreme Court's 2019 verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi Babri Masjid title dispute....