Cash offering stolen from TTD rest house

A cash offering of about Rs 2.3 lakh, including defunct notes with a face value of Rs one lakh, was burgled from a rest house run by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams which manages the hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara, police said today.

The cash belonged to a group of devotees from Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh.

They had planned to put the money in the hundi (offering box) at the shrine as part of fulfillment of a vow, police said.

The burglary took place when they went to a nearby restaurant late last night.

The doors of the TTD rest house were found open and the bag containing the amount missing when they returned, police said.