The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Racket selling seva tickets busted in Tirumala

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Saturday, May 17, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Racket selling seva tickets busted in Tirumala

Staff Reporter

Tirumala: In a major crack down the TTD vigilance and security sleuths on Friday held two TTD employees for allegedly black-marketing ‘Abhishekam’ tickets.

The accused both of whom are working at the TTD Special Officer’s office were identified as Damodar a clerk and Nagoji - record assistant.

The fact that the Abhishekam tickets are not available till the year 2026 itself speaks of the heavy demand for the particular seva.

When such is the case the duo reportedly admitted to have been black-marketing the darshan tickets for quite some long time.

On a tip off, the TTD vigilance and security officials caught two devotees -- Rajendraprasad and Subba Rao -- both belonging to Krishna district at the Vaikuntam queue complex in the wee hours of Friday for securing two tickets at a whopping price of Rs.18,000 against the normal price of Rs.5,000 from the duo.

Investigations also revealed that the duo had adopted a hi-tech methods in black-marketing the darshan tickets.

The duo who established clandestine relations with several middlemen would provide them the darshan tickets of their choice unmindful of the pilgrim crowd and collect exorbitant rates from the devotees.

The devotees would be provided with a bank account number into which the deposits have to be made. TTD Chief Vigilance and Security officer B.V. Ramana Kumar said that he would submit a report to the management recommending strict action.

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