NRI lodges complaint against Ram Janambhoomi trust head

India Diaspora
NRI lodges complaint against Ram Janambhoomi trust head
By IANS, Feb 4, 2007 - 6:22:16 PM

Bhopal, Feb 4 - A religious trust in Madhya Pradesh headed by a US-based NRI has registered a police complaint against Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas acting president Ram Vilas Vedanti Maharaj for making wild allegations after being denied the desired remuneration for a puja.

The Rukmani Balaji temple, run by Shri Rukmani Balaji Temple Trust headed by Chicago-based businessman Sam Verma, had last month held its annual 10-day festival of Bramhaotsav on the occasion of Basant Panchami at Betul town, about 300 km from here.

'This year we had invited the Vedanti Maharaj to deliver discourses during the function. After the function was over and appropriate 'Dakshina' was given to the Maharaj, he demanded a car and when we expressed our inability, he started levelling baseless allegations against the trust,' Verma told IANS.

According to the NRI, after his demand was turned down the Vedanti Maharaj accused the trust of not maintaining the sanctity of the temple by employing Christians and Muslims as workers and charged Verma with acting as an agent of the US in Betul.

Verma said: 'The sanctifying ceremony in the temple - enshrining idols of Ganesh, Radha-Krishna, Durga and Shiva besides main deity Laxmi Narayan - was held in February 2001 in the presence of major religious heads from all over the country. Since then no one has ever raised a finger over its functioning.'

The Vedanti Maharaj, according to Verma, has been alleging in public that the temple had become a den for terrorists.

Verma Saturday lodged a complaint at the Betul police station against the Vedanti Maharaj for making baseless allegations against him and the temple trust.

The Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, the organisation headed by the Vedanti Maharaj, aims to build a grand temple at the site believed to be Lord Ram's birthplace in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.