Andhra CID launches probe into Tirumala Parakamani theft case

The Andhra Pradesh CID has launched a probe into the 2023 Parakamani theft at Tirumala’s Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple. The move follows a High Court directive after the TTD initially closed the case via Lok Adalat settlement

Tirupati: The Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Andhra Pradesh, on Tuesday, began a probe into the Parakamani theft case at Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple in Tirumala.

A CID team led by CID Director General Ravi Shankar Ayyanar began the probe into the case that dates back to 2023.

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The team visited Parakamani (coins and currency notes counting centre) at the famous hill shrine and seized the records of the case registered at Tirumala One Town Police Station.

The CID team launched the probe a day after the Andhra Pradesh High Court pulled up the police department and the DGP for not implementing its orders on the petition challenging the closure of the Parakamani theft case in the Lok Adalat.

The theft had occurred in March 2023. C Ravi Kumar, an employee of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), was caught while stealing 920 dollars from Parakamani. Recently, a petition was filed in the Andhra Pradesh High Court stating that there was no investigation in the theft case. The then-governing board of TTD had closed the case after a settlement in the Lok Adalat. The petitioner had challenged the closure of the case.

Last month, the High Court directed the Inspector General of CID to seize all records about the case, proceedings before the Lok Adalat, and draft resolutions by the TTD board, if any, and submit the same in a sealed cover.

The CID filed a petition for modification of orders to include either a SP or DG rank officer for the seizure of case records, as there was no IGP rank cadre in the CID. When the matter came up for hearing on Monday (October 13), Justice Gannamaneni Ramakrishna Prasad expressed his displeasure in strong words. He asked why the CID waited till October 6 to file a petition for modification when the order was passed on September 16.

Last month, two members of the TTD Trust Board released a video purportedly of the theft case. The TTD board member and BJP State spokesperson, G Bhanuprakash Reddy, and TTD Ex-Officio member C Divakar Reddy released the CCTV footage from the surveillance cameras fixed at Parakamani.

Ravi Kumar had allegedly swindled away currency notes by concealing them in his undergarments on April 29, 2023. The TTD Board members alleged that he was caught in the act of stealing 11,300 dollars, but the FIR showed recovery of only 900 dollars.

They also alleged that the accused had amassed properties worth Rs 100 crore by stealing wads of foreign currency notes several times in the past. The theft case registered at the Tirumala police station was shifted to the Lok Adalat, where a compromise settlement formula was reached in September 2023 after Ravi Kumar volunteered to donate seven properties worth Rs 40 crore, all of them located in Tirupati and Chennai, in the name of the TTD.