When the authorities of Sri Jalakanteswarar temple inside the Vellore Fort opened a ‘hundi’ (cash collection box) for counting at 8 p.m. on Sunday, they were in for a huge surprise. They found bundles of cash to the tune of Rs. 44 lakh in the denomination of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000, which were demonetised last week, inside it.
It is a traditional practice for four to five members of the Sri Jalakanteswarar Dharma Sthabanam to count the cash offerings by devotees every day at 8 p.m. As per their routine, they opened the “hundi” placed in front of the sanctum sanctorum of the temple.
“We found bundles of cash inside the 'hundi'. There were 30 bundles of Rs. 1,000 notes and 28 bundles of Rs. 500 notes. Each bundle had 100 notes of the two denominations, and there was cash in lesser denominations too. We counted the total cash in the hundi and found Rs. 44,34,473 in it,” S. Suresh Kumar, secretary of Sri Jalakanteswarar Dharma Sthabanam, said.
ADVERTISEMENT
This was the first time that the temple witnessed such a huge amount as offering in the ‘hundi’. “On an average, it will have cash of around Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 10,000 and we will deposit this money in the temple’s bank account,” he said.