As per reports, Pramod Nautiyal, the personal assistant (PA) to the Chairman of the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC), is accused of embezzling money while counting the temple offerings. It has also been alleged that CCTV footage shows Nautiyal carrying bundles of currency notes out of the counting room, and that Nautiyal allegedly stole money on multiple occasions, not just once.
Following these reports, on 8 July, a case was registered against Nautiyal at the Badrinath police station, and he was suspended the same day. By the time of writing, he had been arrested.
As mentioned earlier, Pramod Nautiyal was serving as the personal assistant to the Chairman of the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee. He had worked in this capacity under three successive chairmen. This raises an obvious question: if he was the chairman's personal assistant, he should ordinarily have been accompanying the chairman at all times. While the chairman was based in Dehradun, Nautiyal was stationed in Badrinath performing the duties of a counting officer for temple offerings. How was this possible? Was it the chairman who decided to post his personal assistant in Badrinath? If so, what was the rationale behind such a decision? The decision itself raises serious questions about the chairman.
After being suspended, Nautiyal was attached to the Temple Committee's office in Joshimath. However, instead of reporting there, he disappeared without informing anyone or obtaining valid permission. Reports later emerged that he had approached the Nainital High Court, but the court granted him no relief. He was subsequently arrested by the police on 13 July and sent to jail, only after the court declined to intervene.
Reports also emerged that over the past few years the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee had received 20 to 25 laptops from various banks under their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes, but their whereabouts are now unknown. Similarly, two ambulances and a Tempo Traveller vehicle received as donations have also reportedly gone missing.
The Badrinath and Kedarnath temples in Uttarakhand are administered under the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee Act, 1939, under which the committee's chairman, vice-chairman, and members are appointed by the state government. Since the BJP has been in power in Uttarakhand for nearly a decade, the committee has also been under the control of BJP appointees. During this period, the committee's functioning has repeatedly been mired in controversy.
In 2023, allegations surfaced that a donor had contributed 228 kilograms of gold for gold-plating the Kedarnath Temple, but a substantial quantity of the gold was allegedly embezzled and brass and copper plates were installed instead. Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati of Jyotirmath has also made similar allegations.
On 4 May 2025, BJP leader Hemant Dwivedi, considered to be a close associate of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, was appointed Chairman of the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee by the BJP government in Uttarakhand. Between 2009 and 2012, Hemant Dwivedi served as Chairman of the Terai Seed Development Corporation. His tenure there was highly controversial, with allegations of corruption against him. He has also faced allegations of land fraud, and a related case is still pending. Despite this controversial record, he was appointed chairman of the Temple Committee, reportedly because of his proximity to the Chief Minister.
In April 2026, newspaper reports alleged that Vijay Kapruwan, the Vice-Chairman of the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee and a BJP leader, had shown his wife as a peon employed by the committee and had been drawing her salary.
More recently, allegations have also emerged that the expenses of VIP pilgrims visiting Kedarnath - including their travel, accommodation, and food - were paid from the Temple Committee's funds. Among those named were many BJP leaders. It has also been alleged that bills were raised in the names of pilgrims who had actually paid their own expenses.
There have also been allegations that donation funds have been misused for unnecessary office relocations and extravagant spending instead of being used to improve facilities for pilgrims. According to one report, the Temple Committee operated an elaborate office in the upscale Canal Road area of Dehradun, where ₹15 lakh was spent on maintenance in 2025. The office was then abruptly vacated and shifted to a rented building in Rishikesh. The Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee already owns two guest houses and office premises at prime locations in Rishikesh that require repairs and maintenance. Instead of repairing and utilizing those properties, thousands of rupees are reportedly being spent every month on renting a new building.
The cases of theft of offerings, embezzlement, loot, and wasteful expenditure that have surfaced during the tenure of the BJP-led Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee, in addition to the controversies in Ayodhya, make it clear that religion serves merely as a cover for its pursuit of political power.
