VIJAYAWADA: While the Kanaka Durga temple administration is holding Kodela Surya Latha responsible in the missing saree case, the former temple official has challenged Trust Board chairman Yalamanchili Gouranga Babu, former temple EO M Padma and others for an open debate on the issue.
Claiming her innocence in the case, Surya Latha said she was framed. She demanded justice stating that the CCTV clippings did not prove her role in the missing saree row. “I neither took the saree that was offered by devotees nor registered it in the records. With the motive to frame me in the case, a few people fabricated evidence in order to save their faces.”
“The truth will be known if they come for an open debate,” she rued.
Soon after the news of saree missing hit the headlines, several devotees expressed their displeasure with the temple authorities for not taking proper care of the offerings made to the presiding deity.
Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu asked the higher officials of the temple to submit a detailed report and take necessary actions against the accused.
Surya Latha was then removed from the Temple Trust Board and asked to tender an explanation.
In an investigation conducted by a special team, of which then temple executive officer M Padma, board chairperson Gouranga Babu and other officials were also part of, it was found that Surya Latha instructed the temple priests to remove the saree and take it away from the mandap.
As such, the State government has also cancelled all sub-committees under the temple board and told its members not to involve in the temple’s administrative matters.