TIRUPATI: The sleuths of Vigilance and Security wing of Tirumala Tirupati devasthanams (TTD) have busted a gang that has been selling fake Rs. 300 special entry darshan tickets (SED) for gullible devotees for a long time now.
With the help of technology, the gang creates new SED tickets out of old tickets and cheats gullible devotees by collecting exorbitant prices for the morphed tickets. A gang member who will be on duty at the ticket scanning centres in the queue complexes will give the devotees, who purchase the morphed tickets from the gang, access for darshan, sources said.
According to officials, the vigilance wing team has identified a Special Protection Force Constable, an outsourced employee working at laddu counter, some brokers and a person, who earlier worked at the ticket counter, as the culprits. TTD vigilance department also lodged complaints at Tirumala I and II town police stations that seven persons sold fake Rs.300 SED tickets at Rs. 3300 and Rs. 7000 to devotees.
“Four devotees from Telangana had recently come for Srivari Darshan without any darshan tickets. With their contacts, they approached some brokers at Tirupati and bought four fake SED tickets at Rs. 3,300 each. Similarly, another team of three devotees from Madhya Pradesh were trapped on New Year eve and got the fake SED tickets at Rs.7000 each”, a vigilance official said.
However, the vigilance sleuths have identified the fake darshan tickets at the ticket scanning centre and informed the higher ups. On the directions of TTD Chief Vigilance and Security Officer (CV&SO) Gopinath Jatti, a team of vigilance personnel launched an investigation into the matter. Based on the information given by the said Telangana and MP devotees, the sleuths nabbed the gang members who duped the devotees with fake tickets.
Based on the complaint lodged by the TTD, the I town police registered cases against Balaji alias Balu (broker), Arun (laddu counter employee), A. Krishna Rao (SPF constable), Nagendra (a boy who worked earlier at Trilok agency ticket counter) for cheating devotees from Telangana. Similarly for cheating the devotees from MP, the II town police filed cases against one Chengareddy (broker), J. Devendra Prasad, E Venkat (former employees of Trilok agency).
TTD CV&SO appealed to devotees to book their darshan tickets only through the official website of TTD: www.tirupatibalaji.gov.in. He warned of stringent action against all those who cheat devotees with fake tickets.
