VIJAYAWADA: In yet another case of endowment fraud, 10 kg gold and 20 kg silver ornaments of Sobhanachala Swamy Temple at Agiripalli in Krishna district are learnt to have been missing for the last 45 years.
Villagers said no one ever knew what has happened to gold and diamondstudded ornaments ‘Edu Varala Nagalu’ of the presiding deity.
The Shobanachala Swamy Temple was built by the Nuzvid zamindar nearly 400 years ago and has been under the control of the zamindars in the pre-Independence era. The Government has taken over the control of the temple after Independence.
Subsequently, a trust board was formed and the current chairman of the board is a direct descendent of the Nuzvid zamindar family and former MLA of the Nuzvid Assembly constituency, Meka Venkata Pratapa Appa Rao.
Meanwhile, the villagers Saturday complained that the jewellery was misappropriated by some people and the temple of about 1,000 acres of temple land encroached upon.
Some villagers said that the ornaments had been stolen and the issue was kept under the wraps. However, endowment officials maintain that the ornaments are safe in the lockers of SBI, Vijayawada, Andhra Bank, Agiripalli and some banks in Chennai.
Temple EO, G Bhavani, is on leave. On the other hand, the Assistant Commissioner of Endowments, who spoke to the Press, said that he had little knowledge of the assets of the temple.
‘’I will open the cupboards locked inside a room in the temple complex, which are said to contain the ornaments, Saturday.
I will speak on the issue later,’’ the assistant commissioner said.
Meanwhile, an 84-year-old, Lakshmi Kantamma, of Agiripalli village, told Express said that she had seen the ornaments during a procession of the presiding deity almost 45 years ago on the occasion of the Radha Saptami but had not seen them again.
