The Uttar Pradesh government gave a 15-day extension to the Special Investigation Team probing allegations of embezzlement of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya, officials said on Wednesday.

The tenure of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been extended to probe the matter deeply and widen the scope of the probe, they said.

The three-member SIT was constituted on June 13 to probe the allegations and was initially given 15 days to probe the allegations.

The SIT comprises Vijay Vishwas Pant, IAS, Divisional Commissioner, Lucknow; Kiran S, IPS, Inspector General of Police; and Neel Ratan, Special Secretary, Finance Department.

Opposition parties have alleged that only small players were facing action and the main culprits were still free.

AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal questioned Union home minister Amit Shah over the Ram temple issue during a press conference in Delhi.

“I want to ask Amit Shah Ji five questions. The first question: Why have you not visited the Ram Temple?...The second question: Do you not feel like visiting Lord Ram? The third question: Do you not feel like going to the Ram Temple? The fourth question: Do you need the blessings of Lord Ram? And the fifth, and most important, question: Do you consider Lord Ram to be God? These people do not consider Lord Ram to be God. If they did, they would never steal the offerings made at the temple,” he told the reporters.

Again, a BJP MLA has stirred a controversy after a viral video purportedly showed him saying that those involved in the embezzlement of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya would be afflicted with cancer and die a painful death.

Anil Singh, who represents the Purwa Assembly constituency in Unnao district, made the purported remarks at a BJP programme in Maurawan on Sunday.

In the video, the MLA is heard saying, "Those who have stolen from Lord Ram's temple will directly get cancer. It will be a death sentence from God. Wait for a year, they will develop cancer." While the government would take legal action against those responsible, "Lord Ram will punish them in such a way that they will die a painful death, and their next seven generations will remember the consequences of stealing from the temple," he stated in the video.

The alleged theft of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya has sparked a political row in Uttar Pradesh.

The UP government on June 13 constituted the SIT on a request from the temple trust following allegations of misappropriation of donations.

Based on the SIT's report, eight people -- Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lav Kush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ram Shankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Ramashankar alias Tinnu Yadav -- were arrested.