Controversies continue to rock the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) that administers the famous temple of Lord Venkateshwara on Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh’s Tirupati district, which hit the headlines last year over the allegations of adulteration of ghee used for “laddu prasadam.”
In the latest instance, the Crime Investigation Department of the state police began investigating the alleged swindling of foreign currency notes offered to the ‘Hundi’ in the form of donations at the Tirumala temple by a clerk while counting the notes at “Parakamani” (counting centre).
On Tuesday, CID director general Ravishankar Ayyanar seized crucial documents relating to the case that surfaced in April 2023, hours after the state high court pulling up the state police department for its indifferent attitude in unearthing the scam, which was allegedly hushed up during the previous TTD regime.
“The CID has taken possession of all documents related to the case, including case diary and CCTV footage. We shall produce them in the high court,” Ayyannar said.
TTD trust board member and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader G Bhanu Prakash Reddy who was instrumental in unearthing the scam, told reporters on Wednesday that several irregularities had taken place in TTD during the previous YSR Congress Party government.
He alleged that the 2023 Parakamani case was deliberately derailed to protect those involved. “Former TTD chairman Bhumana Karunakar Reddy played a crucial role in hushing up the case and forced the officials to compromise with the accused in the Lok Adalat,” he said, adding that the real culprits behind the case would be exposed soon.
The controversy dates back to April 29, 2023, when a C Venkata Ravi Kumar, an office clerk at TTD’s Pedda Jeeyangar Mutt, was caught red-handed when he was hiding US$ 900 between his legs by the vigilance and security personnel who noticed the theft through CCTV camera footage.
The then officials lodged a complaint with the Tirumala police and a charge sheet was filed on May 30, 2023. Surprisingly, the case was hushed up through a compromise between Ravi Kumar and the TTD in Lok Adalat court on September 9, 2023, ending the case without a formal conviction.
“Before the compromise, Ravi Kumar and his wife Venkata Ravi Ramya handed TTD seven immovable properties in Tirupati and Chennai, valued at several crores. They claimed that this was done out of their ‘pure devotion’ to Lord Venkateswara,” Bhanu Prakash Reddy said.
He said it was not just US$ 900 that Ravi Kumar had stolen but he had amassed properties worth ₹100 crore by stealing wads of foreign currency notes several times in the past. “How can a small-time clerk donate properties worth crores of rupees to the TTD as part of a compromise?” Bhanuprakash Reddy asked.
After the change of government in Andhra Pradesh, the new TTD trust board revived the case. A Tirupati-based whistle blower M Sreenivasulu filed a writ petition in the high court contesting the Lok Adalat settlement and on September 20 this year, the high court suspended the Lok Adalat order.
The high court instructed the CID to confiscate all case-related documents from the Lok Adalat benches, the TTD, and the police station.
OTHER CONTROVERSIES
It is not just the Parakamani issue, the TTD has been in the news regularly due to one controversy or the other in the last few months.
On January 8 this year, six devotees died and 35 others were injured in the stampede-like situation at Bairagi Patteda near MGM School in Tirupati as thousands of them jostled for tickets for the 10-day Vaikunta Dwara Darshanam on Tirumala hills.
As the YSRCP leaders raised a hue and cry over the incident, the Chandrababu Naidu government ordered a judicial probe into the incident and sacking of a couple of officials responsible for the incident.
In April this year, there was yet another controversy over the death of nearly 100 cows in the TTD-run goshala (cow shed) in Tirupati due to alleged negligence of the TTD authorities in maintaining the cowshed.
Former TTD chairman and YSRCP leader Bhumana Karunakar Reddy posted a few pictures of carcasses of cows in the TTD cowshed on social media, triggering protests from devotees.
TTD chairman B R Naidu strongly refuted the allegations saying the YSRCP leader was trying to politicise natural death of some cows. “It is a completely false allegation and is nothing but a conspiracy to damage the reputation of TTD,” he said.
In August, there was yet another controversy over the TTD trust board’s decision to allot 24 acres of temple land to Mumtaz Hotels, a subsidiary of Oberoi Hotels in Tirupati in lieu of the original land allocation made to the hotels closer to Tirumala hills in 2021.
The proposed hotel sparked immediate concern from Hindu groups and devotees who felt the commercial project would compromise the religious sanctity of the area.
Though Naidu government claimed that the revised agreement with Oberoi Hotels was nothing to do with the temple lands, the YSRCP made it a big issue. “The state had incurred a loss of ₹1,000 crore by swapping a high-value TTD plot for lower-value rural land,” Bhumana alleged.
In September, there was yet another controversy kicked by the YSRCP leaders over the sacrilege to a half-completed stone idol of Lord Vishnu, which was lying in an unsanctified area near Alipiri. “The idol was found amid faeces, urine and liquor bottles,” Bhumana alleged.
TTD board members C Divakar Reddy, dismissed the allegations as false, defamatory and politically motivated, as the statue was not of Lord Vishnu but an incomplete figure of Shaneshwara, discarded years ago after defects were discovered during carving.
On October 6, Bhumana came up with yet another allegation saying that a real estate company named G-Square, based in Coimbatore, had written to chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu seeking permission to build a TTD temple within its premises. “The proposal is likely to be cleared by the TTD board in its next meeting,” he said.
He claimed that Naidu, following a verbal discussion with the TTD chairman, had directed officials to place the proposal before the upcoming TTD Trust Board meeting for a decision. “The Board Cell has mentioned this as the 24th item on the meeting agenda,” Bhumana stated.
TTD chairman B R Naidu, however, refuted the allegation, saying no such decision was taken.
