TTD Clarifies Parakamani Gold Theft Attempt, Says Accused Arrested
According to officials, the theft attempt took place on January 11, 2025 in the Parakamani section where offerings from devotees are counted.
Tirupati: An attempted theft in the Parakamani section of the Lord Venkateswara temple in Tirumala came to light on Tuesday. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams issued a statement dismissing the reports that a large quantity of gold went missing from the temple. It said the reference was to an incident last year.
The temple administration said this had “already been detected and acted upon.”
According to officials, the theft attempt took place on January 11, 2025 in the Parakamani section where offerings from devotees are counted.
TTD stated that Penchalaih, an outsourcing employee of what is styled as “Andhra Bank retired employees’ projects of self-engagement (ABREPOSE),” who was working in the Parakamani, attempted to steal a 100-gram gold biscuit during the counting process.
Vigilance and security personnel on duty noticed the attempt during routine checks and caught him on the spot, TTD explained in a statement. It, however, did not state why this matter had not been reported to the public so far.
TTD said the accused had concealed the gold biscuit inside a pipe hole of an empty steel hundi trolley. The concealment was detected during regular security inspection and the entire incident was captured on CCTV cameras. The footage was later submitted as evidence during the investigation, it said.
Based on a complaint filed by a vigilance inspector, the Tirumala I Town Police Station registered a case under Crime No. 02/2025. The accused was arrested and produced before a court on January 13, 2025 and was remanded to judicial custody for about 30 days.
During the investigation, police recovered the 100-gram gold biscuit linked to the incident, the TTD statement said.
It said, "Searches conducted at the accused’s residence also resulted in the seizure of 555.5 grams of gold jewellery and 157 grams of silver articles. Another 76 grams of gold jewellery was recovered during police custody. In total, about 731.5 grams of gold was seized." This is worth roughly `1 crore at current market prices.
“Investigators examined 12 witnesses and reviewed the accused’s financial transactions and assets before filing a charge sheet. The case is currently under trial, with the next hearing scheduled for April 13, 2026."
"The Parakamani process at Tirumala is carried out under strict procedures with multiple layers of security and continuous CCTV monitoring,” the TTD explained.