Silver crown missing from TTD treasury, says Tirupati BJP

: Tirupati BJP on Tuesday alleged that a crown made of silver weighing about 5 kg and some golden articles have gone missing from the treasury of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) that governs the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala.

Speaking to mediapersons here, BJP's Andhra Pradesh secretary G Bhanu Prakash Reddy said the crown and the small-sized golden articles offered by devotees have gone missing from the TTD treasury since October 2017.

He demanded the TTD to conduct a probe into the missing ornaments and take stringent action against the people responsible for this.

Reacting to the allegation, TTD executive officer Anilkumar Singhal said the TTD vigilance and accounts department officials had, two years ago, noticed the shortage of some silver and golden articles worth about Rs 7 lakh from the TTD treasury where gold and silver offerings made in the Tirumala temple hundi by lakhs of devotees were stored.

A sum of Rs 25,000 was recovered every month from the salary of a TTD official who was in-charge of the TTD treasury when the shortage took place, he said.

On the request of the the penalised TTD treasury officer who claimed to be an innocent and not responsible for the shortage, TTD top officials again verified all records of offerings kept in the treasury and found to their surprise that there were more gold and silver articles when compared to the articles listed in the official records.

Steps were being taken to make the treasury flawless besides a probe into the dereliction of duties of the officials who had earlier discharged their duties there, he said.