MUMBAI: The state government has ordered an audit of the Shree Siddhivinayak Temple Trust’s accounts for the last five years, after temple functionaries met deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday. After the meeting, Shinde directed the state law and judiciary department, which oversees the administration of the trust, to conduct the audit.State govt orders audit of Siddhivinayak trust accounts (Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo)The development comes amid allegations of theft of donations made by devotees at the temple in Prabhadevi, one of the wealthiest in the country. The controversy was further stoked on Saturday, when Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray quoted from a letter written by the temple trustees to Shinde, urging an investigation into the theft of donations.The MNS chief said the letter claimed temple employees were involved. “After these employees were caught, the average donation amount has increased significantly,” he said, quoting from the letter. “According to their letter, around ₹18 crore was being looted annually. This should be probed,” Thackeray added, speaking at the 20th anniversary of his party’s student wing.Asked to comment on the audit, former Shiv Sena MLA Sada Sarvankar, who heads the Siddhivinayak Temple Trust, claims part of the letter had been leaked and that Thackeray had read portions of it out of context. “We had earnings of ₹182 crore this year, while the figure was ₹137 crore last year, and ₹104 crore in 2022-23. We have been trying to analyse why collections were lower earlier. We approached Shinde saheb on Tuesday and he ordered an audit of the last five years,” he told HT.The theft came to light in March after temple authorities noticed cash missing from a donation box. A First Information Report (FIR) was registered, followed by the arrest of eight temple employees. In May, the trustees wrote to the state law and judiciary department, urging it to order an audit and an investigation.Sarvankar said the trust has since taken several steps to secure the donations. “We recently met additional director general of police Vishwas Nangre Patil when he was with the Anti-Corruption Bureau. He advised us on steps we could take. So we changed our security personnel and also the personnel in charge of the temple’s CCTV network. We brought in ex-servicemen and realised that they were also stealing money,” said Sarvankar, adding, “We took further steps and stopped the theft of money.”Sarvankar was appointed chairperson of the trust after Eknath Shinde parted ways with the undivided Shiv Sena and the BJP assumed power in Maharashtra. He and team plan to meet chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar on Wednesday, to brief them on the issue.