Margao: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Friday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not have been unaware of alleged irregularities involving land deals, construction contracts and theft of offerings at the Shri Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, claiming he had constituted the temple trust and handpicked its members.Addressing a press conference in Panaji with AAP Goa in-charge Atishi and state president Valmiki Naik, Kejriwal said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted only after the allegations gained national attention and accused the Centre of shielding the real culprits.He alleged that land purchased for a few crore rupees was resold to the temple trust within minutes at several times the original price. He also claimed engineers associated with the project had alleged that 40% commissions were demanded on construction tenders, and referred to alleged CCTV footage showing repeated theft of offerings over 40 days, with eight months of footage subsequently deleted.Kejriwal said he had no evidence that any money reached the prime minister directly but claimed the circumstances suggested an attempt to protect those responsible. He also questioned why Union home minister Amit Shah had not visited the temple for darshan since the Pran Pratishtha ceremony despite frequently invoking Lord Ram in his speeches.He further alleged that only eight minor accused had been arrested without custodial interrogation and claimed the SIT had informed AAP MP Sanjay Singh that it was investigating only the alleged theft of offerings and not the alleged land scam.
