TTD Board member alleges embezzlement of ‘lost goods’ at Tirumala during YSRCP rule, demands probe

BJP State spokesperson and TTD Board member G. Bhanuprakash Reddy addressing a media conference in Tirupati on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Close on the heels of the alleged Parakamani scam, yet another irregularity was reportedly unearthed in the TTD’s ‘Lost and Found Goods’ section, monitored by the Command Control Unit.

G. Bhanuprakash Reddy, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) State spokesperson and a member of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Trust Board, called the new scam as a sequel to the ‘Parakamani scam’ and demanded a thorough probe into the incident, which happened during the erstwhile YSRCP rule in 2023.

At a media conference here on Tuesday, he accused a handful of sleuths in the Vigilance Department of stealing small goods lost by pilgrims at Tirumala, such as cash, jewellery, and electronic items.

Such articles are normally kept in the ‘Lost and Found’ section and handed over to the pilgrims when claimed or deposited into the Hundi after recording their details, if not claimed within a stipulated time.

“A Vigilance Inspector, Siva Shankar, working at the Command Control Centre at Tirumala, has resorted to stealing such goods worth crores of rupees, which was even confirmed by an internal inquiry conducted by the vigilance higher-ups,” the board member said.

He also wondered at the absence of a process to record such ‘lost and found’ goods in the past.

“However, without initiating disciplinary action or legal proceedings against him, the then TTD administrators repatriated him to his parent department. The TTD’s vigilance files a police complaint even when a small-time thief or a middleman selling tickets in black are nabbed. How can they let an Inspector go scot-free?” he questioned.

‘Parakamani-2’

Calling it as ‘Parakamani-2’, a sequel to the ‘Parakamani scam’ in which C.V. Ravi Kumar, a clerk of Pedda Jeeyangar Mutt, was arrested for stealing foreign currency notes during the Srivari Hundi counting process, Mr. Bhanuprakash Reddy recalled that the video footage pertaining to the ‘Parakamani scam’ ‘‘could not be found’‘.

“Many suspect Vigilance Inspector Siva Shankar’s hand in getting the footage erased. His favour was returned by giving him a ‘safe exit’ to his parent department in the garb of repatriation. A thorough probe is needed to dig deep into the issue,” he said, producing the report of the internal probe conducted by the TTD’s Vigilance Department.