Backing his claim with hard evidence, Thackeray read out a letter written by eight temple trustees to Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, revealing a telling detail: before the alleged theft was uncovered, Siddhivinayak’s weekly donation collections stood at under Rs 50 lakh. The moment employees were caught, and the leak plugged, collections shot up threefold — to Rs 1.5 crore a week. “Every year, Rs 18 crore was being stolen,” Thackeray alleged flatly, framing it as proof the scam had been running for years undetected.
