The Madras High Court on Friday, November 18, sent a notice to fundraising platform Milaap, seeking details of the donations collected by rightwing YouTuber Karthik Gopinath in the name of renovating vandalised idols in some temples managed by the Tamil Nadu government. The YouTuber allegedly collected more than Rs 30 lakh for the Siruvachur Mathura Kaliamman temple and a few others, without obtaining permission from the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department which manages the temple. After a case was filed against him, he was arrested on May 30 and later released on bail.
Karthik, earlier last week, had approached the Madras High Court seeking to direct the HR&CE department to recognise him as a donor and allow the transfer of Rs 30.77 lakh — which he had collected via Milaap — to the Sthapathi for restoring damaged temple idols.
When Justice PD Audikesavalu, while hearing the petition, asked for the details of donors and the amount donated by them, Karthik’s counsel V Raghavachari said that the details are available only with Milaap. To this, Special Government Pleader NRR Arun Natarajan said that Karthik must first approach a magistrate to unfreeze the account, which was frozen after a police complaint.
Further, Advocate General (AG) R Shunmugasundaram produced the photographs of the renovated idols in the temple for which Karthik crowdfunded money, adding that neither the temple nor the HR&CE department needed the money.
Pursuant to this, as the judge said that an order will be sent to Milaap regarding the details of the donations, Karthik’s counsel proposed that the money can be given back to the donors as the temple did not want it.
However, justice Audikesavalu said that he wanted to know whether Milaap has statutory backing for collection of money from donors. “Wonder what happens when money lies with them for years together and how is the interest component dealt with,” he added. He also observed that Karthik could have asked the donors to make the donation to the temple directly instead of collecting it through Milaap. The judge also sent a notice to Milaap demanding a list of details of donors and donations, returnable by November 28, and adjourned the case.
Karthik had posted a video of vandalised temple statues from two temples in his YouTube channel Ilaya Bharatham, and linked a fundraiser on Milaap seeking money to renovate the statues. A total of Rs 33 lakh was collected in the fundraiser, against Rs 10 lakh which he had asked for.
Karthik was booked under sections 406 (breach of trust), 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 66(D) (punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology (IT) Act, based on a complaint filed by the executive officer of a temple alleging that he had wrongfully used the money for personal purposes. However, according to Milaap, most of the amount collected is still with them and not released to Karthik.