Ayodhya: Eighteen candidates have been shortlisted for the interview for the post of the Chief Executive Officer of the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra trust, temple sources said Monday.
More than 5,300 candidates had applied for the post, following which a screening committee shortlisted 18 candidates for the interview, they said, adding candidates with administrative experience are likely to be preferred.
The shortlisted candidates will be interviewed at the temple premises Tuesday and Wednesday by a panel comprising former Justice Pramod Kohli, Lieutenant General (retired) Vishnukant Chaturvedi and scientist Suresh Haware, former chairman of the Shirdi Sai Baba Trust, the sources said.
The Chief Executive Officer’s (CEO) primary responsibility will be to oversee the administration and management of the Ram temple’s affairs and businesses.
According to the sources, the selected candidate will have to be a practising Hindu and strictly follow Hindu traditions and guidelines.
The candidate will also have to be a pure vegetarian and a strict teetotaller.
The age criterion for the post has been fixed between 50 and 70 years, the sources added.
Trust officials had decided to appoint a CEO after the embezzlement of Ram temple donations came to light in the first week of June.
The Uttar Pradesh government had constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) on June 13 to probe the allegations and was initially given 15 days to probe the allegations.
Following the submission of the preliminary SIT report June 23, an FIR was registered June 25 and eight accused — Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Ramashankar Yadav alias Tinnu Yadav — were arrested.
During the investigation, police recovered cash from multiple accused, with the highest recovery of Rs 20.39 lakh being made from Shukla, besides gold, silver and foreign currency.
