An open-to -sky temple to Shani – Saturn – in a Maharashtra village is a huge attraction where about 4000 worshippers pour in every day to seek blessings against misfortune. It is a simple temple – a back rock of over a meter high on a rectangular platform with railings, and notably, no walls. People who pour in also put their offerings in the collection box.
The village which has this temple is Shani Shingnapur in Nevasa tehsil of Ahilyanagar, formerly Ahmednagar. It is close to Shirdi. It is an open village, both allegorically and literally. Anyone who strays to a household for a glass of water may be offered a cup of tea too. A tired pilgrim may even receive a meal. Its reputation has spread widely, and the residents take pride in its openness.
The faith that the deity offers them protection is so strong that residents live in homes without doors. The homes have only door frames indicating the location of the entry, with only curtains for privacy, not shutters for security. Locks are not even a thought. There were no complaints registered in decades except for one where some jewels were stolen from a temple trustee’s home.
A bank which was set up in 2011 is an exception. It has glass doors with an electromagnetic latch. Padlocks are not to be found. The police station in Shani Shingnapur too is open as it should be 24×7 but hardly has any local village-specific complaint of any crime. Its major activity is to manage crowds which swell on special days like Amavasya – new moon day – and especially if that falls on Saturday.
Police station manages crowds
That brings us to the core of this narrative. An ongoing charities commissioner of Maharashtra government has found massive corruption and fraud in the temple trust which has allegedly stolen money meant for the temple. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis told the state legislature on Friday that he has ordered FIRs and an independent probe against all the mischief.
An MLA, Vittal Langhe mentioned in the Assembly that the irregularities deprived the temple of Rs 36 crores. Another legislator, Suresh Dhas alleged that the scam amounted to Rs 500 cr. The scams, according to revelations in the state Assembly, were at least two. One was showing bogus or non-existent employees on the temple’s rolls and pocketing their salaries. The second was running fake Apps to collect money from devotees for remote darshan.
An official from the charities commissioner who was asked to probe when the corruption was smelt had given the trust a clean chit, and he is now transferred and will face a probe. The ongoing investigation by the commissioner’s office has revealed details that can only shock. As many as 327 people were shown on the register of the temple-run hospital, but no patients were found and staffed by four doctors and a staff of ten.
Now it is tainted by huge scam
There were 12 counters to receive donations from the devotees, but the staff employed to man them were as many as 352 on the registers. A staff of 80 was shown as working on a non-existent garden. The salaries paid to these ghost employees were diverted into private accounts. There couldn’t be a brazen racket like this.
There have hardly been any crimes in the village because the doors are always open. It didn’t even have a police station till one was set up, not to deal with crimes but to help manage the crowds of devotees. Now, a huge crime of stealing money from the temple using its assets like a hospital meant to serve the devotees and mulct the devotees using fake Apps has taken place.
The chief minister was quoted in the Times of India on Saturday saying in the Assembly that, “Inspections showed that the employees did not exist. There was no muster and no attendance was taken”. Dhas has alleged that the temple trustees and staff were buying land at Rs 10 crore to Rs 20 crore every week. However, it is unclear how the charity commissioner smelt this racket out. Perhaps the stench was too strong to be ignored. Now FIRs have been ordered.
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