Man held for cheating pilgrims
The B Tech graduate used to collect money from devotees on the pretext of providing Seva tickets
Tirumala: Tirumala Two Town police on Friday arrested Ramana Prasad (29), a proclaimed offender, who is cheating pilgrims by assuring them to provide Seva tickets and collects money.
According to police, Prasad is a computer engineering graduate and worked in a software company in Hyderabad for two years. He left the job to earn easy money and came to Tirumala in 2016 and started selling laddus to devotees in black market for higher rates.
He will collect phone numbers of the pilgrims, who took laddus from him and tells them of providing tickets for Thomala Seva, Archana, Suprabatham, VIP break darshan, which areunavailable to ordinary pilgrims. Earlier, he used to book seva tickets through advance booking and sell the same to devotees. Later, he cheated pilgrims by collecting huge amounts without giving tickets. Pilgrims, who were caught by vigilance officials for giving fake darshan tickets provided by Prasad, filed complaints with the police.
Tirumala police said that about 14 cases were registered against Prasad, including 12 at Tirumala One Town and Two Town and two cases in Vizianagaram and Kakinada.
Tirumala police arrested Prasad, who was prosecuted in the court and imprisoned. But after serving in jail for a few years, Prasad continued cheating pilgrims in the name of Seva tickets.
Following the complaints, Tirumala police arrested Prasad on Friday and recovered Rs 25,000 and five mobiles from him. He was produced in the court, which sent him to judicial custody.
Prasad through mouth publicity and through social media advertised his phone numbers to pilgrims seeking darshan tickets. He also opened about seven accounts in his name and his family members. The verification of accounts revealed that he has transacted Rs 1,33,58,300 in the last 7-8 years, which is suspected to be the amount deposited by pilgrims seeking darshan tickets.
Police investigation also revealed that Prasad spent the money earned by cheating on gambling and other vices. Police said that to cheat pilgrims, the offender tagged JEO office, TTD to his phone number in Truecaller. Cops appealed the pilgrims not to believe anyone, who offers tickets on higher rates to them and to approach police. The pilgrims are requested to book Seva and other tickets on TTD official website or at TTD offices.
