Dehradun, July 14 -- A special investigation team (SIT) of the Uttarakhand Police has arrested a suspended employee of the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) in connection with the alleged theft of donations at Badrinath Dham in Chamoli district. The accused, Pramod Nautiyal, a personal assistant in the chairman's office who also handled VIP protocol and supervised the counting of donations and offerings at Badrinath Dhami, was arrested from his Dehradun residence on Sunday evening. Nautiyal joined the BKTC in 2003 and was regularised in service in 2014. Chamoli superintendent of police Surjeet Singh Panwar said the SIT examined the scene, recorded statements of the complainant and witnesses, and scrutinised CCTV footage from the counting room. "The footage shows the accused concealing cash and other offerings beneath his mobile phone and in his pockets before taking them out of the room," Panwar said. "Our investigation further revealed that he misappropriated Rs.500 notes, packets containing gold and silver coins, a Shaligram stone and a packet of saffron. On the basis of the evidence collected during evidence, we arrested the accused from his Dehradun residence on Sunday late evening," the SP added. A senior BKTC official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an internal committee examining the matter has found that the accused committed similar acts on earlier occasions too. An official from the BKTC, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, "He [Nautiyal] did it multiple times, apart from the incident on July 2." The official said the CCTV system at the shrine was recently upgraded, with storage capacity expanded from 4 GB to 32 TB and the number and quality of cameras enhanced. " We recently upgraded our CCTV camera system, and both the old and new DVRs have caught him committing the act," he said. "The storage of the earlier DVR was only 4 GB, which was recently upgraded to 32 TB. Previously, depending on the crowd density and color variations, the storage would fill up quickly, automatically overwriting older footage and retaining data for only about two weeks. But with the new 32 TB DVR, we will be able to store much more footage for longer periods. We have also upgraded both the quality and the number of CCTV cameras on the Badrinath Dham premises. "He worked as a personal assistant to former chairpersons. He was a PA in the chairman's office and was in charge of VIP protocol and counting at Badrinath Dham. Nautiyal has been working with the BKTC since 2003 and was made a permanent employee in 2014." The BKTC has denied reports that CCTV footage from the counting room is missing. BKTC chief executive officer (CEO) Sohan Singh Rangar said, "No such fact has come to light during the departmental probe." Badrinath SHO Mahadev Uniyal said statements of at least six eyewitnesses have been recorded and more than 30 persons questioned in the case. An FIR was registered against Nautiyal at Badrinath police station on July 8. The Congress has demanded a broader inquiry, alleging that action against a single employee is inadequate. The BJP has rejected the charge, accusing the opposition of politicising an issue concerning a major place of worship....