LUCKNOW, July 2 -- The Uttar Pradesh government has extended the tenure of the three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged theft of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya till July 15, giving investigators additional time to widen the inquiry beyond the eight arrested accused and determine whether systemic failures, procedural violations and institutional negligence enabled the alleged embezzlement. Senior home department officials said chief minister Yogi Adityanath approved the extension after the SIT sought more time to complete a comprehensive investigation covering every link in the temple's donation management system before submitting its final report. "The SIT sought additional time for a detailed examination of all aspects of the case. The government has accepted the request and directed the team to submit its report by July 15," a senior home department official said. The SIT, comprising Lucknow divisional commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, inspector general of police (Lucknow range) Kiran S and special secretary (Finance) Neel Ratan, is expected to camp in Ayodhya over the coming days to reconstruct the entire chain through which devotees' cash offerings moved from donation boxes to bank deposits, while identifying accountability at every stage of the process. With the direct involvement of the eight arrested cash-counting personnel already under investigation, the SIT has now shifted its focus to the institutional framework that governed the handling of donations and whether lapses by officials responsible for supervision, banking and manpower deployment created conditions that facilitated the alleged theft. The SIT was constituted by the chief minister on June 13 following a request from the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. It submitted its preliminary report to the home department on June 23, recommending stringent action. Based on those findings, an FIR was registered on June 25 at the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi police station on a complaint by Trust member Krishna Mohan, leading to the arrest of all eight named accused the next day. According to people familiar with the matter in government and police circles, a key focus of the expanded probe will be the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) governing the handling, counting and banking of donation money. Investigators will identify the officials who conceptualised, drafted and approved the SOPs, assess whether the safeguards prescribed under them were sufficient, and determine how and why those safeguards allegedly failed in practice. The SIT is also expected to examine the role of State Bank of India (SBI) officials who participated in designing and implementing the temple's cash management system. Sources said investigators will scrutinise whether bank officials merely failed to enforce prescribed protocols or whether any lapses amounted to criminal negligence or deliberate facilitation. Local SBI branch officials responsible for receiving, processing and supervising the deposit of temple donations are also expected to be questioned. Investigators will verify whether operational protocols were followed consistently, whether mandatory checks were conducted and whether any warning signs were ignored. Trust functionaries responsible for supervising the donation management system will similarly come under scrutiny. Investigators will examine the level of oversight exercised by the Trust, compliance monitoring mechanisms and whether deficiencies flagged internally were addressed or overlooked. A significant part of the investigation will also focus on the outsourced agency entrusted with deploying manpower for the highly sensitive cash-counting operation. According to people familiar with the matter, the SIT will examine how the agency was selected, the terms under which it was engaged, the officials who approved its empanelment and whether it fulfilled its contractual obligations relating to recruitment, background verification, supervision and accountability of its personnel. The investigators will also scrutinise the recruitment process of outsourced employees, including who selected and deployed them, whether police verification and antecedent checks were properly conducted, the training imparted before they were assigned sensitive duties and whether the agency maintained effective supervision over its workforce. Any failures by the outsourced agency or officials associated with its engagement will also be examined for possible criminal or contractual liability, people familiar with the matter said. Investigators are further examining whether coordination failures between the Trust, SBI and the outsourced agency weakened the safeguards built into the donation management system. According to police officials familiar with the issue, the SOPs prescribed stringent safeguards, including mandatory frisking of everyone entering and exiting the counting rooms, deployment of dedicated security personnel, preservation of CCTV footage for 180 days, random inspections and dress codes prohibiting pockets in clothing to prevent concealment of cash. Preliminary findings, however, suggest that several of these safeguards were either ignored, diluted or inadequately enforced, allowing the alleged theft to continue undetected. During its extended tenure, the SIT will scrutinise attendance records, deployment registers, CCTV footage, bank documentation, cash movement logs, audit reports and other official records while recording statements of Trust officials, SBI personnel, representatives of the outsourced agency and employees associated with the donation management process. Senior officials said the investigation is aimed not merely at prosecuting those directly accused of stealing devotees' donations but at fixing accountability across the entire administrative and operational chain. The final report is expected to identify individual culpability, expose systemic weaknesses and recommend structural reforms to strengthen transparency, oversight and security in the management of donations at the Ram temple. Police sources indicated that if the expanded investigation uncovers evidence of involvement by additional individuals or reveals serious violations by officials of the Trust, SBI or the outsourced agency, the scope of the criminal investigation could be widened further. Earlier, in a statement on June 28, SBI said it has extended full cooperation to the SIT during the inquiry and remains committed to assisting the ongoing investigation....