TIRUPATI: Tirumala II town police have unearthed a major black-marketing racket involving sale of '300 special entry darshan (supatham entry) tickets at exorbitant rates to devotees at Tirumala.
A police team led by CI Chandrasekhar booked cases against seven persons including a TTD office junior assistant for allegedly selling seven darshan tickets at a rate of '35,000 against their original price of just '300 each. Further investigation was under way to expose the involvement of more persons in this racket. The TTD assistant is suspected to be the kingpin of the racket.
Giving details of the case to Deccan Chronicle, CI Chandrasekhar said the TTD vigilance and security personnel had on September 23 caught Sudarshan, a taxi driver, while he was selling the darshan tickets to two groups of devotees, who came from Raichur and Telangana state.
On enquiry, it was revealed that the taxi driver was selling darshan tickets to devotees at '5,000 per ticket against the actual price of 1 300 each.
The vigilance and security officials surrendered the taxi driver to the II town police and lodged a complaint. “Upon questioning, Sudarshan confessed to the police that he had obtained the supatham entry tickets from another taxi driver, Saikumar. We immediately took Sai into custody and conducted further inquiries,” the CI said.
Sai Kumar claimed he had purchased the tickets from a tout, Mohankumar, who in turn told the police that he too was just a part of the bigger racket and that he obtained the tickets from two other touts -- Prasad and Kirankumar.
“When we took Kiran into custody and questioned him, he revealed that another Kiran who works as a junior assistant in TTD office used to sell them the '300 special entry darshan tickets to middlemen like him at the rate of '1000 per ticket. Based on his statement, we took the junior assistant into custody and further investigation is on,” the CI said.
According to sources, the II town police are suspecting that a huge racket in darshan tickets is operational. The few arrests were just the tip of the iceberg and investigations will lead to more arrests, the sources said.
Meanwhile, on learning about the issue, TTD chairman Y.V. Subba Reddy has directed the TTD vigilance and security wing and the police to conduct a thorough investigation and not to spare anyone – even if they are TTD employees.
