Andhra Pradesh High Court orders CID, ACB action in Tirumala Parakamani theft case

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has directed the CID and ACB to register FIRs and investigate the Tirumala Parakamani theft case, including the Lok Adalat compromise and the assets of accused TTD employee Ravi Kumar. The court also sought the post-mortem report of complainant Satish Kumar

Amaravati: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday directed CID and ACB to take legal action in the Parakamani theft case at Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple, Tirumala.

The court allowed Directors General of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to register the FIRs to take action as per law.

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Both the CID and ACB have been authorised to probe the compromise in the Lok Adalat and the assets of accused C V Ravi Kumar. Both agencies were directed to mutually exchange information during the investigation.

They were also asked to share the information with the Income Tax and the Enforcement Directorate. The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which probed the Parakamani theft case, had submitted its report to the court on December 2.

Additional Director General, CID, Ravi Shankar Ayyanar, who headed the SIT, submitted the report in a sealed cover. The CID had launched the probe after the High Court issued orders on a petition challenging the closure of the Parakamani theft case in the Lok Adalat.

Ravi Kumar, an employee of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), was caught while stealing USD 920 from Parakamani (coins and currency notes counting centre) in April 2023.

The theft case registered at the Tirumala police station was transferred 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.

A petition was filed in the Andhra Pradesh High Court alleging that there was no investigation into the theft case as the then-governing board of the TTD had closed the case after a compromise in the Lok Adalat. Petitioner Macherla Sreenivas sought an investigation into the closure of the case.

The SIT, which launched the investigation in October, questioned former TTD Chairpersons B Karunakar Reddy and Y  V Subba Reddy, former TTD executive officer Dharma Reddy, and several other TTD and police officials.

In a related development, the High Court on Wednesday directed CID to submit a report of the post-mortem examination of Y Satish Kumar, the complainant in the theft case.

A former Assistant Vigilance and Security Officer (AVSO) of the TTD and complainant in the theft case, Satish Kumar, was found dead under mysterious circumstances on the railway tracks at Komali village near Tadipatri in Anantapur district on November 14. Postmortem revealed that he had been hit on the back of his head with a sharp object.