TTD Deputy EO Lokanadham Remanded To Custody; ACB Detects ₹2.91 Crore Excess Assets
TTD deputy EO M. Lokanadham was remanded to 14 days’ judicial custody after the ACB alleged ₹2.91 crore in disproportionate assets.
In a corruption case, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) deputy executive officer M. Lokanadham was remanded to judicial custody for 14 days and shifted to Nellore jail on Friday.
In its remand report submitted before the Nellore court, the anti-corruption bureau stated that Lokanadham had accumulated assets of `2.91 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income. This amounted to 131.18 per cent of his known salary and perquisites during the seven-and-a-half-year period under scrutiny.
The report listed eight immovable properties held by Lokanadham, his wife and son in Tirupati and Vadamalapeta, including a shopping building and residential complex in Pedda Kapu Layout.
The ACB clarified that some properties in his wife’s name were claimed as “gifts” from her parents.
The investigation agency also listed gold worth `32 lakh, two cars, two-wheelers, electronic gadgets worth `7.86 lakh and silver articles worth `2.96 lakh. Officials seized purchase bills for gold and silver and memory cards during the searches.
Investigations remain incomplete. Though the ACB had a warrant to search Room 53 of the B-type quarters at Tirumala, it was not searched as the room had not been allotted to Lokanadham. He and some others had gone there temporarily to rest, the report said.
Meanwhile, an ACB press note issued after the arrest referred to disproportionate-assets information on “some employees of TTD” shared by the CBI following its investigation into the Tirumala laddu ghee adulteration case.
The note also mentioned a separate DA case registered against K. Chinna Appanna, PA to former TTD chairman Y.V. Subba Reddy.
The ACB did not state that Lokanadham was among the employees whose DA-related information was shared by the CBI. Nor did it establish a direct link between his case and the laddu ghee case.
Meanwhile, TTD appointed reception deputy EO, B. Bhaskar as the new Tirumala temple deputy EO on Friday, after Lokanadham was sent to judicial custody.
