NIZAMABAD: A temple priest reportedly cheated women in the name of special pujas and Sumangali Vratham by promising them huge returns on collecting donations from NRIs. He allegedly cheated the women of Rs 1 crore and disappeared.
The incident took place around two months ago. The women have lodged a complaint against the priest at the Dichpally police station. Interestingly, the priest has no family, Aadhaar card, mobile phone, bank account or even voter’s ID. He also did not provide any personal details to the temple committee.
According to the police, Srinivas Sharma was appointed as a priest in the Sri Venkateshwara Temple in Dharmaram village. In the backdrop of Covid-19, he conducted special pujas and Sumangali Vrathams for women devotees. He told them that he would take videos of the special pujas and Sumangali Vrathams programmes and forward them to NRIs to attract huge donations. He also assured the women that if they invested in this, they would get double the amount back.
Trusting him, many devotees not only from Dharmaram village, but from Nizamabad, Bodhan and Hyderabad gave him money. After he collected the money, he suddenly disappeared.
According to the police, one Nizamabad woman had given the priest Rs 25 lakh. Only a few of the women who were cheated registered complaints at the police station. Dichpally police station Sub Inspector (SI) B Anjaneyoulu said that they would inquire with the temple committee members regarding the issue.