The Hindu : Rackets involving blackmarketing of Seva tickets unearthed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 16, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Rackets involving blackmarketing of Seva tickets unearthed

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUMALA JULY 15. Two rackets involving the blackmarketing of Arjitha Seva tickets were unearthed by a TTD Joint Executive Officer, P. Balasubramanyam, on Sunday.

Perturbed at the increasing reports of blackmarketing of darshan tickets, the JEO, Mr Balasubramanyam, decided to break the mystery on his own and made a surprise check of the `Vaikuntam' queue complex -- (through which every devotee has to pass to reach the temple for the darshan of the Lord) on Saturday evening during the Sahasra Deepalankara seva darshan timing and much to the surprise of the TTD staff, identified and handed over to the police, nearly half a dozen cases, which included purchase of the darshan tickets at higher costs and impersonation.

In due course, the Tirumala police who had also accompanied the JEO, nabbed the kingpin of the racket, Solingar Prasad, who confessed to selling the seva tickets at higher costs particularly to North Indian pilgrims. He also confessed that their point of operation was the Sudarshan token counter located at Alipiri, Tirupati, and that they were involved in the business for quite some time. Explaining their modus operandi, he confessed that their main job was to identify pilgrims who were hard pressed for time and lure them with early darshan on payment of higher costs. Inspired at his successful first attempt, the JEO, Balasubramanyam, again made a surprise visit to the queue complex on Sunday morning during the Archana Anantara Darshan (AAD) time this time booking nearly a dozen cases.

Enquiries revealed that this time it was another gangster, Dilip, who was involved in the blackmarketing of seva tickets, whose point of operation was also interestingly the same Sudarshan token counter, Alipiri. The details of the illegal business came to light when a three-member Chennai-based pilgrim party confessed that they had purchased tickets from Dilip. More than six cases which were detected were also referred to the police. It was also noted that having had information of the massive and intensified checking, there were more than 150 reported absentees, which the T.T.D. officials believe to be either cases of tickets purchased in the black market or bogus.

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