VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday issued notices to respondents, including the Principal Secretary of the Endowments Department, Member Secretary of the AP State Legal Services Authority, Chairman of the Tirupati
Mandal Legal Services Authority, Director General of CID, Executive Officer of TTD, Chief Vigilance and Security Officer, Inspector of Tirupati I Town Police Station, former Assistant Vigilance and Security Officer (AVSO) Y Satish Kumar, and accused CV Ravikumar, in connection with the Parakamani theft case.
A division bench comprising Justice R Raghunandan Rao and Justice Subhendu Samanta gave directions while hearing a suo motu case registered to determine the legality of the Lok Adalat order that permitted a compromise between the Vigilance Officer and the accused in the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Parakamani theft case. The court postponed the matter to November 17.
The issue dates back to 2023, when TTD employee Ravikumar was caught stealing US dollars from the Parakamani, the temple’s treasury counting centre. However, on September 9, 2023, the case was reportedly compromised before a Lok Adalat by then AVSO Y Satish Kumar and the accused, without the approval of the TTD Board or the Executive Officer (EO) .
Following this, journalist M Srinivasulu filed a petition in the HC after the then TTD EO allegedly ignored a request for a CID probe into the scandal.
It may be recalled that the single-judge bench of the HC had earlier ordered the CID to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the compromise process, as well as into the roles of the TTD Board, its officials, the investigating officer, and Satish Kumar.
The court instructed the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to probe the movable and immovable assets and bank accounts of accused Ravikumar and his family members to verify whether their wealth matched their known sources of income.
Investigators were directed to check whether any of these assets had been transferred or registered in the names of others.