Supreme Court is hearing a batch of petitions in the Ram Temple donation ‘theft’ case

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged theft of offerings at the Ayodhya Ram Temple to submit a status report on the investigation within two weeks.“All remedial steps to ensure transparency will be taken. We are on a qualitative investigation of the incident,” Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said, according to PTI.“We are focussed on having a fair, speedy, impartial investigation,” he added.Appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the bench that the state had constituted a four-member SIT headed by IGP Kiran S to investigate the alleged embezzlement of donations.He further apprised the court that, apart from the IGP, who was part of the team that examined whether an FIR needed to be registered, the SIT would comprise a DIG-rank officer, a senior superintendent of police and an additional SP.The Supreme Court directed the state government to add a forensic auditor as the fifth member of the probe team, a proposal accepted by Mehta on behalf of the state.During the previous hearing on Monday, the bench had asked the Uttar Pradesh government to inform it about the possibility of setting up an SIT to investigate the alleged embezzlement of donations.