The official picture is already stark. UP Police have recovered Rs 20.39 lakh in cash, along with US dollars and gold ornaments, from multiple accused in the alleged temple donation theft case, several of whom came from modest means before the Maha Kumbh. But the sting exposes something the recovery memos can’t: a donation route engineered, step by step, to be untraceable. Strip away the camera, the bill, and the donor’s right to question and what’s left is a channel through which anything can move, and almost nothing can be followed.
