Even as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday directed for a criminal case to be filed against the trustees of Shani Shingnapur temple of Ahilyanagar district, the AAP and Congress demanded a deeper investigation to expose and arrest all those involved in corruption in the temple’s functioning.“Just the Chief Minister directing a criminal case be filed will not do. There is need for a deeper investigation to find out who all are involved in the corruption in the temple’s day to day operations,” said Vijay Kumbhar, vice-president of the Maharashtra unit of AAP.The Chief Minister made the announcement in the State Assembly on Friday. He said he had appointed to probe the temple operations after the issue was first raised by Shiv Sena MLA Vitthal Langhe. Langhe again raised the issue in the House of Friday. BJP MLA Suresh Dhus supported him, but said he suspects the ”app-based” donation scam to be worth Rs 500 crore.Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Langhe, an MLA from Newasa, said, “The donations were received by the trustees through fake apps. Every app has two lakh members. As much as Rs 1,800 was taken from each devotee from across the world for performing the puja. And that is why I raised the issue in the State assembly. Some employees and some ‘pujaris’ are prima facie involved in this illegal act.”Must Read | Fadnavis orders criminal case in Shani Shingnapur scamKumbhar said over 2,400 employees recruited by the temple trust — Shri Shaneshwar Devasthan — were found to be bogus. He said, ”The CM has highlighted that only 258 workers were required to manage the temple operations. Then how is it that the temple trust showed it recruited over 2,400 employees? Who recommended the names of employees, if at all anyone did it? Who was checking the accounts of the trust? Why is it no one suspected anything was wrong about such a huge number of employees shown by the trust? The local MLA has made allegations that money was misappropriated in the name of the bogus employees. What amount of money was siphoned off?”Congress spokesperson Gopal Tiwari said, “The BJP Government both at the Centre and state keeps talking about Sanatan Dharma and Hindutva. And now look what the trustees who were entrusted with managing the day to day affairs of the temple are found doing? They are not even sparing God’s place from indulging in corruption. This is not the first kind of its case. This is also happening in other temples, not just in Maharashtra but in other parts of the country.”Tiwari said in the Shani Shingnapur case, devotees had been cheated of crores of rupees. “The trustees have shaken the faith of devotees. Imagine mobile apps being used to collect donations and then misappropriating the same funds. And this has happened blatantly and brazenly.”Story continues below this adKumbhar said the role of charity commissioners should also be clarified by the state government. “We never come to know what exactly Charity Commissioners do. Their working is silent and unknown to the outside world. In this case, the government should explain whether the Charity Commissioner’s office could have stopped the wrongdoings by the trustees. We want to know how long this illegal activity was going on and who was supposed to monitor the functioning of the temple trustees,” he said.Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:MaharashtraShani Shingnapur