The Ayodhya Police on Wednesday stepped up their investigation into the alleged misappropriation of donations at the Ram temple by subjecting two of the eight arrested accused to nearly 14 hours of custodial interrogation and conducting searches at premises linked to them as investigators sought to unravel the alleged conspiracy behind the diversion of devotees’ offerings and close in on the money trail.Police take two accused, Ramashankar Mishra and Subhash Chandra Srivastava, from the district jail following the remand by the court in the alleged embezzlement of Ram temple donations, in Ayodhya on Wednesday. (ANI VIDEO GRAB)Retired bank employee Subhash Chandra Srivastava, who supervised the temple’s cash-counting operation, and Ramashankar Mishra, who transported sealed donation boxes from the temple to the counting centre, were brought from the Ayodhya district jail to the Special Operations Group (SOG) office after undergoing medical examination, where they were questioned throughout the day.Investigators confronted the duo with statements made by co-accused during earlier rounds of custodial interrogation and questioned them about the movement of donation cash, the alleged siphoning of funds and their individual roles in the suspected embezzlement. The exercise also focused on reconstructing the alleged conspiracy and verifying the chain of custody of temple donations.The police team took Ramashankar Mishra to the rented house where he used to live in Ayodhya, recovered important land-related documents from a bag kept in the house and sealed a room, according to sources.Investigating agencies are now examining these documents to determine whether they have any connection to the case.The digital video recorder of the CCTV camera installed at the rented house was also taken into police custody, the sources added.Police are closely examining Ramashankar Mishra’s role after tracing deposits of about ₹7.32 lakh in his bank account. While his family has maintained that the amount represents savings accumulated from his monthly salary over five to six years of service at the temple, investigators are verifying whether the deposits were linked to the alleged diversion of donations.Police also carried out a search at a location linked to Subhash Chandra Srivastava, and examined several important documents and other items. Police said the investigation is still ongoing and the recovered documents will be verified. If the probe finds evidence of any illegal property or suspicious transactions, those will also be made part of the case diary, officials said on condition of anonymity.Investigators also suspect that Srivastava, who oversaw the donation-counting process for nearly 18 months after retiring from the bank, exploited vulnerabilities in the cash-counting mechanism to facilitate the alleged embezzlement. Although no cash recoveries have been made from him so far, police officials said his role figures in the preliminary findings of the government-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), which identified serious procedural and supervisory lapses in the temple’s donation management system.Wednesday’s questioning followed the earlier custodial interrogation of co-accused Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra and Karunesh Pandey, which investigators said resulted in the recovery of two SUVs allegedly purchased with misappropriated donations, besides cash, gold ornaments and investment-related documents.The investigation has also expanded to allegations that part of the diverted donation money was invested in the stock market and used for private lending before being routed through banking channels to conceal its origin. Financial records, digital transactions and investment documents are under scrutiny, while more than two dozen bank accounts linked to relatives and associates of the accused have been frozen over transactions allegedly disproportionate to their known sources of income.Eight people — Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu — have been arrested so far in the case, which was registered on the basis of findings by the government-appointed SIT.Police are expected to seek custody of the remaining two arrested accused — Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu and his nephew Manish Yadav — as they continue to investigate the alleged embezzlement, while the SIT separately examines procedural failures, supervisory accountability and safeguards governing the temple’s donation management system.