HC seeks details of Lord Venkateswara’s assets

Hyderabad, Aug 3 :-

  The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday ordered the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (Ttd) to provide all the details of the massive amount of assets owned by Lord Venkateswara.

A division bench of the High Court on Monday directed the Executive Officer of the Ttd to provide all the details of the huge amount of property owned by the Lord, including the minute details of the jewellery that is stored in various places. The bench told the Ttd to file an affidavit in three weeks with regard to the details of the assets of the main deity at the world famous Tirumala Hills an also other temples maintained by the Ttd at other places in the world.

Taking a serious note of the recent dollar scam that came to light in the Ttd in which gold dollars amounting to crores of rupees disappeared from the Srivari temple, the bench on Monday directed the Ttd Executive Officer (EO) to file the affidavit in three weeks. The court also asked the EO to give the details of the daily hundi collections.

However, the Ttd officials are planning to file an appeal with the full bench stating that it is not manifestly possible to assess the whole amount of the assets that the Lord owns. “It is not possible for us to assess the worth of the gold jewellery and also precious stones. Thus we are planning to move the full bench,” Ttd sources told TNN when contacted over phone.

As per a rough estimate, the Lord has jewellery worth about Rs 58,000 crore in various shapes, including the gold ornaments weighing 11 tons and also precious stones studded jewellery. This enormous amount of gold is stored in various places by the Ttd and the areas where the jewellery has been stored have been kept as a closely guarded secret in view of the threat to the temple from terrorists.

Ttd sources also said that due to security reasons they can not reveal the places where the jewellery is stored.