VARANASI/AYODHYA, July 2 -- Six of the eight men arrested in connection with irregularities in the Ram Temple donation collections were on the payroll of a Varanasi-based security agency that provided manpower to the bank associated with the shrine in Ayodhya, HT has found. This agency - Sainik Security Services - was incorporated in its present form with a Varanasi registered address and a paid-up capital of Rs.1 lakh in December 2017, according to the ministry of corporate affairs database. The agency was hired by the State Bank of India (SBI), Naya Ghat Branch, Ayodhya, said Gaurav Singh, the owner and director of Sainik Security Services (SSS), Varanasi. The branch is one of the three bank branches where the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirath Kshetra Trust had an account. "Usually, it's the corporate office that raises demand, but in this case, the local branch raised the demand for the 19 employees", said Singh. "In this case, the branch asked us to induct 19 of its previously deployed persons into our fold and provide them to the branch. We did so. The demand was raised by the local branch," he added. Asked if any official of the SIT contacted him for questioning, Singh said: "The Sainik Security Services' field officer Jairam Yadav deployed in Lucknow provided all details and information about the 19 individuals, (who were hired for the position of caretaker and given to the bank) to the SIT." SBI said it is cooperating with the SIT. In a statement, SBI said it has provided the trust with banking services since the Pran Pratishtha ceremony in January 2024. A senior SBI official in Lucknow who asked not to be named said: "Usually, hirings such as these are done at the corporate or centralised level." According to the agency's website, it works across 15 states and lists a number of government companies among its clients. The documents submitted by the Ayodhya police to the court of Rajat Varma, additional district judge, anti-corruption, reveal that six of the eight accused were being paid by the Varanasi-based agency, said people aware of the matter. 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, said police officers aware of the matter. "Ram Shankar Yadav was paid by the trust and Srivastava, a former bank employee, didn't draw wages, according to a person in the trust who asked not to be named", said a person in the trust asked not to be named. Anukalp Mishra and Luvkush Mishra are related to each other, and also to trust member Anil Mishra, who resigned last week along with trust general secretary Champat Rai. Ram Shankar Yadav - an aide of Rai - and Manish Yadav are related. Gaurav Singh said each of the 19 people were paid around Rs.20,000 a month. "My father had founded it in the year 2000 as a proprietorship unit, then it grew and changed form into a partnership firm, and then turned into a private limited company subsequently in 2017. I became the director then," he added. HT reported on Tuesday that officials at the SBI branch had alleged that some trust members had put pressure on the bank to include certain 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. Earlier, in a statement on Sunday, SBI said it is fully cooperating with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing alleged irregularities in the handling of donations collected through the donation boxes at the Ram temple in Ayodhya. In the statement, SBI said it was providing banking services to the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust since the Pran Pratishtha ceremony in 2024. The bank said it has extended full cooperation to the SIT during the inquiry and remains committed to assisting the ongoing investigation. Gaurav Singh clarified that his connection was with the bank branch, not the trust. "The temple is not our client. The SBI is. We are the second vendor. I don't want to make any comment on the matter because I have nothing to do with the temple. Sainik Security Services provided the bank with the manpower it desired. At the bank's recommendation, Sainik Security Services employed 19 people as caretakers (peons) and handed them over to the bank," he said. Asked where these employees were deployed in Ayodhya and what role they were assigned, Singh said: "I have no idea, ask the bank about it. We provided the manpower and how the bank deployed them was none of our business," he added. Police have already recovered Rs.79.85 lakh in cash from seven of the eight accused during searches. 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. On June 13, the state government set up a special investigation team at the request of the temple trust. The panel - comprising Lucknow divisional commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, Lucknow Range inspector-general Kiran S, and special secretary (finance) Neel Ratan - conducted a preliminary inquiry in Ayodhya between June 15 and 20 and flagged prima facie irregularities in the handling of cash and valuables offered by devotees. According to investigators, the probe prima facie revealed a systematic diversion of cash during the collection and counting process. 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 week, an FIR was registered against eight named accused and other unidentified people under BNS 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....