The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Chamoli Police on Monday arrested a retired official of the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC), who is allegedly involved in cash-taking from the donation room at the Badrinath temple in Uttarakhand.
Rajendra Chauhan, is a former employee of the BKTC, who retired from the company on June 30. Police said that the CCTV footage looked at during the investigation allegedly revealed he pocketed money from the temple’s donation room three times: 22 June, 25 June and 29 June.
Chauhan was arrested on Friday afternoon and will be taken to a court on Saturday, days when the Badrinath police station SHO Mahadev Uniyal said. He was allegedly involved in the theft, along with arrested suspended BKTC employee Pramod Nautiyal, police believe.
The detail leaked by Nautiyal were recorded on CCTV as he overseen the counting of donations in the office of the BKTC chairman and was also responsible for counting the donations on the basis of VIP protocol during four donation counting sessions held on June 22, June 25, June 29 and July 2.
According to police, initial evidence shows that the two gang members planned the alleged theft. Investigators are asking for police custody of Nautiyal to further question him about the missing cash and uncover the scope of the conspiracy.
The stolen cash, which it is thought gold or silver coins were stolen from the donation room, have yet to be recovered by police. A Shaligram stone made of stone only has been recovered in investigation, and the accused, allegedly, didn’t co-operate during questioning, officials said.
A four-member Uttarakhand government high-level committee set up to conduct a detailed probe on the alleged irregularities following the Chamoli tragedy is probing it while Chamoli police SIT has constituted a four-member internal committee to investigate the case in detail.