A Supreme Court Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant noted on Monday that a status report submitted by the Uttar Pradesh government’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) identified 105 instances of unauthorised currency removal captured on CCTV in the Ram Temple donations misappropriation case.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, said the probe had been “substantially concluded” and a chargesheet in the case would be filed before the court of the jurisdictional Additional Sessions Judge on or before September 25, 2026.

The court noted from the report that the role of every person allegedly involved has been assessed.

Mr. Mehta pointed out that the 90-day statutory period for investigation, which started with the first arrest in the case, was drawing to an end this week.

“Some of the accused have been identified along with details provided on the number of times they engaged in misappropriation... The status report details the analysis of CCTV footage and other materials to identify the eight accused persons. It also presents a tabulated summary of the unexplained deposits in their accounts and information about the immovable and movable assets where the stolen money was invested,” the apex court order recorded.

The status report has noted the estimated amount misappropriated by each accused individual, also noting that existing evidence suggests the suspected misappropriation of currency took place within the counting room during the process of counting and handling the currency.

Receipts generated by the TCS software for 803 valuable articles have been verified, and their relevant records have been found to be with the Temple Trust. These articles are stored in a State Bank of India locker, which was physically checked.

In so far as these articles were concerned, no discrepancies were found during the verification. However, there were 86 valuable articles in respect of which receipts have not been issued. These articles had been separately identified and physically verified.

The records relating to approximately 944.411 kg of white metal (supposed to be silver) have been sent by the Trust to Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited for melting. Particular allegations regarding valuable donations reported in the media and on social media were verified.

These allegations included the alleged donation of 200 kg of silver bricks, 38.288 kg of silver bricks, a silver necklace, Charan Paduka, and a donation related to the Ramcharitmanas. The involved individuals have been interviewed, and the pertinent materials have been examined by them. No discrepancies were identified during this verification process.

The statements of 173 witnesses were recorded by the SIT. According to the status report, relevant Standard Operating Procedures and records relating to the counting and handling of donations, security arrangements, CCTV recordings and reconciliation records have been examined to the extent relevant to the present investigation.

The status report was perused by the Bench in court. However, the audio was muted and the screen went blank when the order was read out, requiring media personnel to enter the court room to grab shreds of the court’s oral dictation of the order.

When senior advocate Ravi Shankar Jandhyala, appearing for petitioner Ajay Kumar Rai, sought a copy of the status report, the Bench said the contents of the documents were summarised and covered in the judicial order itself.

“The State requires to be transparent,” Mr. Jandhyala said.

Reading out from the status report, the Bench said the SIT investigation was banked extensively on CCTV footage to identify the accused persons, recoveries, forensic examinations and audits.

After noting that the primary offences include criminal breach of trust and offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the court said further investigation would continue under 193 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.

Noting that though it did not want to intervene in the jurisdiction of the Sessions Court, the Bench asked the State government to file a copy of the chargesheet in the apex court too.

The next hearing will be on November 2.

The three-member SIT, headed by Lucknow Divisional Commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, was constituted by the State government on June 13 at the request of the Trust, before the Supreme Court intervened in the matter. Range Inspector General Kiran S. and Special Secretary (Finance) Neel Ratan Kumar are the other members.

The FIR named eight persons — Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu — and other unidentified individuals as accused.