Lucknow: A Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing alleged irregularities in the handling of donations at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya has submitted its preliminary report to Uttar Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Sanjay Prasad, according to officials familiar with the development.

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The report, handed over on Tuesday morning, is understood to contain evidence related to the alleged misappropriation of offerings, suspected commission payments, and procedural lapses in the management of temple donations. The findings are expected to be placed before Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for further action.

The SIT, comprising Lucknow Divisional Commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, Lucknow Range Inspector General Kiran S, and Special Secretary (Finance) Neel Ratan, submitted the confidential report at the state secretariat around 11 a.m.

Ayodhya Ram Temple Donation Row: Sindhi Community Leader Claims 'No Acknowledgement Received' For Offering Of 200 KG Silver Worth ₹1.5 Crore

Sources said the inquiry has raised concerns over the appointment of personnel involved in handling donations and the processes used for counting cash offerings. Investigators have reportedly collected documentary evidence and recorded statements from witnesses during the course of the probe.

The SIT spent six days in Ayodhya examining records, interviewing officials and reviewing operational procedures linked to the collection and counting of donations at the temple.

According to sources, the report has questioned the oversight exercised by certain office-bearers of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. While some individuals have been suspected of possible involvement in irregularities, others have allegedly been held accountable for lapses in supervision that allowed the alleged misappropriation to occur.

The report is also said to mention the names of trust functionaries and individuals associated with them. However, no official findings have yet been made public and the allegations have not been independently verified.

Ayodhya Ram Temple Sees Sharp Drop In Footfall And Donations After Donation Embezzlement Controversy Erupts

Sources familiar with the investigation said the SIT has identified the possible involvement of 25 to 30 individuals in the alleged diversion of donation funds. The report reportedly recommends criminal action against those found directly involved.

The inquiry has also examined allegations that certain employees engaged in counting donations were appointed through an outsourcing arrangement but were linked to individuals associated with the trust. Investigators are looking into claims that the recruitment process lacked adequate safeguards and may have enabled a network of related or recommended individuals to gain access to donation handling operations.

According to the findings, the alleged diversion of funds may have continued for more than a year. Investigators suspect that cash was siphoned off during the counting process itself. Since donations from multiple collection boxes were pooled before counting, officials believe it became difficult to independently verify the total amount received, creating opportunities for manipulation.

Ayodhya Ram Temple Donation Theft Row Deepens; 3 Complaints Filed As SIT Probe Continues

The SIT has further examined security arrangements at the temple. Sources said investigators found weaknesses in employee verification procedures and access controls. Despite extensive CCTV coverage, the monitoring mechanism allegedly failed to detect irregularities in real time.

The probe has also reviewed allegations that portions of CCTV footage from previous months were unavailable. Investigators have seized available surveillance footage as part of the inquiry.

Officials stressed that the report submitted on Tuesday is only a preliminary assessment. A detailed investigation is continuing and a comprehensive report is expected within the next two weeks.

The state government has not yet issued an official statement on the contents of the report. The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has also not publicly responded to the latest findings.

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Pinterest CEO Bill Ready

Camille Kermarrec for BI

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• Pinterest's CEO, Bill Ready, wants advertisers to know that its users come to the platform to shop.
• Search and product recommendations are now core parts of Pinterest's business.
• Ready sat down with Business Insider at Cannes Lions and spoke about how Pinterest is leveraging AI.

Pinterest is a search engine — and its CEO wants advertisers to know it.

Bill Ready, who joined the company as CEO in 2022 from Google, told Business Insider's editor in chief, Jamie Heller, that Pinterest sees more than 80 billion searches a month.

"Those searches are primarily visual," Ready said, adding that "more than half of those are commercial."

The interview took place at Business Insider's annual CMO Insider Breakfast, with support from founding sponsor BCG, supporting sponsor PayPal, and contributing sponsor LinkedIn.

Pinterest has become a digital mall of sorts, with products and brands placed strategically in the feed. While not every user comes to Pinterest to shop — and may have opened the app or website to passively scroll — it's become a de facto experience. If you arrive at Pinterest, you're going to end up window shopping, at the very least.

Since taking over as Pinterest's CEO, Ready has been laser-focused on "building it out as a shopping platform," he said.

AI is proving to be a key part of that plan.

Pinterest has doubled down on AI-powered visual search tools that guide users through its results, serving up recommended content based on their tastes. Ready said that Pinterest trains open source AI models on the platform's proprietary data, which helps surface those recommendations to its users.

It's also leveraging AI to improve its advertising product.

In 2024, it launched "Pinterest Performance+" to help advertisers better target using visual signals from content. It also offers tools to turn products into more stylized images for platform advertisements using generative AI.

Bill Ready was interviewed onstage by Business Insider's editor in chief, Jamie Heller, at Cannes Lions.

Camille Kermarrec for BI

Ready gave an example onstage at Cannes: Imagine someone wants to buy a $5,000 coffee maker.

"They're probably thinking about how that's going to look in their kitchen," Ready said. "When you can personalize down to a level of not just showing them a great coffee maker, but showing them a great coffee maker that is sitting in a kitchen like their kitchen, you're going to have better conversion rates on that, and it's going to be brand-enhancing."

Search and AI innovations have been bolstering Pinterest's ad business.

"We quadrupled the growth rate of the revenue," Ready said of advertising. "But of course you want to get the user engagement first, and the revenue falls in behind that."

While AI is a crucial part of Pinterest's search and advertising business, the platform is still figuring out how its over 630 million users — more than half of whom are Gen Z — feel about AI content in their feeds.

"I'm an entrepreneur by background, an engineer, a technologist, and there's so many great uses of AI, but there's also a bit of a counter movement to that with consumers," Ready said.

Pinterest, like nearly every social media platform, has been scrutinized by some users for too much AI slop.

Last year, it introduced tools that let users limit the amount of AI-generated content they see on their Pinterest feeds.

"We're in this transition period where users are still trying to figure out their own tastes and preferences," Ready said.

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