Coimbatore Venkata Ravikumar, a senior assistant who stole from the Parakamani, where donations worth crores of rupees are received at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), has been missing for the past year. No one knows what happened to him yet. This matter, which took place during the Jagan regime, has come to light again in the coalition government.
Normally, a case is registered against those who steal, old thefts are investigated, recovered and punished. But during the Jagan regime, a case was registered against Ravikumar, who was caught stealing dollars from the TTD Parakamani, but he was soon turned into a “donor”.
Some of the properties purchased with the stolen money were shown as donations to the TTD, making him appear as a donor. In the TTD Board of Trustees meeting held on June 19, 2023, under the chairmanship of YV Subba Reddy, assets worth Rs. 14.43 crore were accepted as “donations made by donor Ravikumar”. This decision was crucial to easily closing the theft case.
Ravikumar started his job as a clerk in a monastery in Tirumala in the 1990s. Later, he was appointed as a senior assistant in the TTD Parakamani department and was responsible for calculating foreign currency in the same department for three decades. It was during this time that he became accustomed to stealing foreign currency notes. With the money he had stolen over the years, he bought huge real estate properties in cities like Tirupati, Renigunta, Chennai, and Hyderabad.
The fact that an employee who earns a monthly salary of Rs. 40,000 could amass assets worth crores was questionable to everyone. On April 29, 2023, Ravikumar was caught by the vigilance officials while stealing dollars from Parakamani. At that time, he pleaded, “This is my first mistake, I will not do it again.”
Nevertheless, a case was registered and a charge sheet was filed on May 30. But before the trial could take place, the case was settled in the Lok Adalat on September 9, 2023. There are allegations that the then ruling party leaders and high-ranking officials pressured him to withdraw the vigilance complaint.
The fact that Ravikumar’s case was concluded within three months made it the fastest “case” resolved in the history of Parakamani. Ravikumar’s absence a few months after the case was settled raises new questions. No one knows where he has been since September last year.
The Parakamani theft case came to the fore again in June 2024 when the coalition government came to power. The CID is reinvestigating the case as per the High Court’s orders. The assets donated by Ravikumar are only a small part.
There are allegations that the remaining assets are in large quantities and that key YSRCP leaders and officials have registered them in the names of their benami. The value of these assets is reported to be in the tens of crores. The CID is now examining the transactions and registration records of these assets. Former officials involved in the Parakamani theft case will also be investigated.
