Mumbai: Amid the Ram temple donations theft row, MNS chief Raj Thackeray has alleged that donations of Rs 18 crore were being siphoned off every year from Siddhivinayak temple.The temple is headed by former Shiv Sena MLA Sada Sarvankar and is run by a trust with state govt appointees.At an MNS gathering on Saturday, Thackeray read out a letter reportedly from the temple’s trustees to deputy CM Eknath Shinde requesting a high-level inquiry into the alleged theft.“…Some employees were caught stealing money from the temple’s donation box. Before these employees were caught, the amount in the donation box every Wednesday was within Rs 50 lakh. However, after they were caught, the amount in the donation box reached around Rs 1.5 crore in the last three weeks. This means that earlier, some amount was going missing from the total money deposited in the donation box every week. Due to this, the temple was losing about Rs 18 crore every year, and we strongly suspect that the threads of this are at the senior level. We, the board of trustees, expect you to take serious note of this entire matter and investigate it at the senior level,” he said quoting from the letter.Sarvankar did not respond to Thackeray’s allegations.Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut backed Thackeray’s allegation, saying donations thefts have increased since the temple’s reins went into the hands of those close to Shinde. “All temples in the country are witnessing thefts and they are under the control of BJP.”
