Lucknow

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday expressed hope that there would be no theft of "Ram Dhan" as the Ram Janmabhoomi Trust meeting begins in Ayodhya to decide the first CEO.

Speaking to reporters, Yadav alleged that poor people were being defrauded of their land in Ayodhya.

"When new things happen, do we forget what happened in the past? We have no complaints from anyone, but the way the theft of donations happened, you sent ordinary employees to jail but spared the big names. We hope there will be no theft of 'Ram Dhan'," Yadav said.

"Ayodhya should have been developed as a world-class city. There was so much greed in their (BJP) minds that the poor are being defrauded of their land," he said.

Earlier, the meeting of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust began at Shri Maniramdas Chhawni in Ayodhya on Wednesday to discuss and decide on the appointment of the first Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir.

Trust members, including Mahant Dinendra Das Maharaj, Mahant Kamal Nayan Das and Treasurer Swami Govind Dev Giri Ji Maharaj, arrived at the venue for the meeting.

The Trust is expected to discuss the selection report and decide on the name of its first CEO during the meeting.

The search committee constituted to select the first CEO of the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir submitted its final report a day earlier after a rigorous screening process that saw more than 5,000 applicants compete for the post.

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The report was submitted during a high-level meeting attended by Trust members, including Treasurer Swami Govind Dev Giri Ji Maharaj, Mahant Dinendra Das, Acting General Secretary Krishna Mohan, and Ayodhya District Magistrate Shashank Tripathi.

The three-member search committee comprises retired Lieutenant General Vishnu Kant Chaturvedi, former scientist Suresh Haware, and former Justice Pramod Kohli.