ELURU: Police have busted a fake ticket racket at Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple in Dwaraka Tirumala and arrested seven accused involved in the fraud.
Police registered a case at Dwarakatirumala Police Station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the IT Act following a complaint by Temple Executive Officer (EO) Bhadraji. Officials said 61 counterfeit tickets, each priced at Rs 200, were seized after they were sold to devotees through the temple counter on March 15, 2026.
Eluru District Superintendent of Police (SP) K Pratap Siva Kishore formed special teams under DSP D Sravan Kumar to investigate the case. CI P Krishna, SI T Sudheer and their team tracked the absconding accused using technical evidence and arrested them along with six other Devasthanam staff members.
Police said the prime accused conspired with Mulagala Ramesh, a computer supervisor, and Muthyala Naga Venkata Satya Srinivasa Rao, a software engineer, to develop software to generate fake tickets. The accused printed the tickets using a thermal printer and sold them through official counters for illegal gain.
Police identified the arrested accused and remanded them.Officials said further investigation is under way.