Ram temple trust names Air Marshal Jeetendra Mishra as first CEO

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust on Wednesday appointed Air Marshal (retired) Jeetendra Mishra as its first full-time chief executive officer. The 62-year-old fighter pilot, who headed the Indian Air Force Western Air Command during Operation Sindoor in May 2025, was chosen from a shortlist of three names drawn from 5,585 applications.

Mishra told The Hindu he had not been informed of the decision in advance and first heard it from news reports. The Trust met in Ayodhya at the residence of president Mahant Nritya Gopal Das. Treasurer Swami Govind Dev Giri, interim general secretary Dr Krishna Mohan, Swami Kamalnayan Das and trustee Mahant Dinendra Das were among those present.

The same sitting added three trustees: Delhi-based Mahesh Bhagchandka, former additional advocate general Madan Mohan Pandey of Ayodhya, and Nirmala Yadav. The CEO post was created after a donation theft case that led to eight arrests and the resignation of Champat Rai as general secretary in June.

A search committee led by retired Justice Pramod Kohli, with retired Lieutenant General Vishnukant Chaturvedi and nuclear scientist Suresh Haware, handed a 75-page report to the treasurer on 1 September. Committee secretary Sameer Panda said the panel judged candidates on leadership, management, integrity and the vision required to run an institution of national and international weight.

The numbers behind the shortlist are specific. Of 5,585 applications received between 11 and 18 July, 1,580 were treated as eligible. A 600-mark frame mixed software screening with manual review. Candidates who scored 470 or more moved forward. One hundred and eight people sat through online interactions between 3 and 6 August. Sixteen finalists came to Ayodhya on 11 and 12 August for face-to-face meetings at Green House, on the temple campus.

Mishra was commissioned as a fighter pilot on 6 December 1986 and logged more than 3,000 flying hours. He served as a fighter combat leader and experimental test pilot, and later as Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Operations). He retired on 30 April 2026 as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Air Command. He was one of seven officers given the Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal for planning and execution in Operation Sindoor.

He comes from Bhopatpura village in Bankata block of Bhatpar Rani tehsil in Deoria district, Uttar Pradesh. Haware told The Indian Express that Mishra's record of running large operations, and his stress on discipline, fitted the job the Trust now wants filled.

The CEO brief, as set out by the Trust, is administrative rather than ritual. It covers systems and procedures at the scale of the organisation, legal and financial compliance with the trust deed, and a structure that can handle pilgrim traffic, donations and contracts. Transparency was the stated reason for creating the post after the donation case.

The Trust had circulated a Google form with 34 questions as part of the first cut. Software screening sat beside human scoring. That mix is unusual for a religious body of this size in India and is part of what the committee presented as a professional process after the embezzlement row.

Mishra's appointment does not settle the criminal cases. Eight people remain in prison on the donation charges. Champat Rai is no longer general secretary. The new CEO starts with an institution that is both a pilgrimage site and a financial entity under public scrutiny.

Whether a retired air commander can impose audit discipline on a temple trust will be tested in the next few quarters, as donation accounts, contractor files and pilgrim-management contracts come under one desk for the first time.