Former Union Minister and Telugu Desam Party leader P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju expressed disgust at the repeated statements being made by ruling party leaders and the State government that they will send him to jail for his alleged involvement in the Simhachalam temple land scam.
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Mr. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, who is the hereditary trustee and Chairman of the Simhachalam temple Trust Board, offered prayers to the deity on Monday.
He was received with temple honours by the Executive Officer M.V. Suryakala and the temple priests.
Later, speaking to the media, Mr. Raju turned philosophical and said, “History is replete with people going to jail for different reasons. Lord Krishna was born in jail, Mahatma Gandhi had gone to jail several times and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy also went to jail. The reason for their going to jail is an open secret.”
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Replying to a query, he said let the State government come out with the survey numbers of the lands, which it claims were missing from the records, which had caused thousands of crores of rupees loss to the temple. He also said that the temple authorities had declined to give him details of the lands saying it was a ‘secret’.
He also alleged that the attacks on temples have increased after the YSR Congress Party government had come to power.
Commenting on the temple getting the ISO recognition recently, he said that recognition could not be achieved in a day and it was the result of the hard work of successive EOs over the years.
He also advised the officials to take measures that the recognition was safeguarded.