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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\nMumbai:<\/span> Following allegations of donation theft at the Siddhivinayak temple, deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde<\/a> has ordered a probe into the temple donations and accounts. Shinde has asked additional chief secretary (ACS) Aseem Gupta to conduct an inquiry and submit a report.Shinde\u2019s order comes just days after the Siddhivinayak Temple Trust called for an audit into the increase in the donation amount collected by the temple in the last two years. The temple trust is regulated by the state law and judiciary department headed by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis<\/a>.\u201cDy CM Eknath Shinde has ordered a probe and asked ACS Aseem Gupta to conduct the probe and submit a report on the allegations of the donations deficit. The probe is likely to be carried out by a joint committee of law and judiciary and urban development department officials,\u201d an official said.\u201cWe examined the donation box collections over the last four years. The collections were Rs 106 crore in 2022\u201323, Rs 114 crore in 2023\u201324, Rs 135 crore in 2024\u201325, and Rs 182 crore in 2025\u201326. This means that since we took charge, the amount collected in the donation boxes has increased by nearly 35%. One of our trustees wrote to the justice department asking that if the collections in the first three years were at this level, why were they only Rs 106 crore earlier? This should be thoroughly investigated. Dy CM has ordered a probe into the matter,\u201d trust chairman Sada Sarvankar said.BJP functionary Pawan Tripathi is the temple trust\u2019s treasurer. Sarvankar is a former MLA from the Shiv SenaLast week, amid the Ram Mandir donation controversy involving allegations of embezzled cash and valuables from donation boxes, MNS chief Raj Thackeray<\/a> alleged that donations worth Rs 18 crore were being siphoned off every year at the famous Siddhivinayak temple. The temple is run by a trust with state govt appointees.Thackeray took a dig at PM Narendra Modi, asking why the prime minister had not spoken about the theft in the Ram temple in Ayodhya. At an MNS gathering, he read out a letter reportedly from the temple\u2019s trustees to Dy CM Eknath Shinde requesting a high-level inquiry into the theft from the donation box at the Siddhivinayak temple.Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut backed Thackeray\u2019s claim of the donation theft at Siddhivinayak temple. Raut said such instances had increased since the temple\u2019s reins went into the hands of people close to Shinde.\u201cBJP people are involved in the alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. All temples in the country are witnessing theft and they are under the control of the BJP. A serious truth lies in the allegations made by Raj Thackeray. The instances of theft of donations at Siddhivinayak Temple have increased ever since its reins went into the hands of Shinde\u2019s people,\u201d Raut said.<\/div>\n