A complaint has been registered against five archaks of Sri Dattatreya Temple in Deval Ganagapur, Afzalpur taluk, Kalaburagi district, for creating fake websites in the name of the temple for swindling money from devotees.
A First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against the archaks, Vallabh Dinakar Bhatt, Ankur Anandrao, Pratik Sadashiva, Gangadhar Srikant Bhatt and Sharat Bhatt, on the charge of creating fake websites of the temple.
According to a complaint lodged by Namadev, Executive Officer of the Sri Dattatreya Temple in Ganagapur, the accused have created multiple fake websites, Sri Kshetra Ganagapur Dattatreya Temple, that resembled the original website, Sri Dattatreya Temple Ganagapur.
Though the puja fee at the temple is ₹1,000, the archaks demanded from devotees additional amount ranging from ₹10,000 to ₹50,000 as donation through their websites.
Kalaburagi Deputy Commissioner Yeshwant Gurukar, who is president of the Dattatreya Temple Development Committee, visited the town and inspected the official website of the temple. It has been found that there were multiple fake websites in the name of the temple and they were being run by the archaks.
The development committee has accused the archaks of stealing money from temple hundi (donation box). It was also revealed that around ₹20 crore has been swindled by the archaks in the last six to seven years. The temple comes under Muzrai (Hindu Religious Endowment) Department.
According to sources in the village, these archaks were collecting exorbitant fee for pujas from devotees visiting the temple from neighbouring Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The archaks have amassed property worth crores in Kalaburagi, Bengaluru and neighbouring States, the sources added.
