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Tirupati. Once again a big case of corruption has come to light in the world famous Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD). After adulteration of Laddu Prasadam and theft of huge Hundi, now ‘Silk Dupatta Scam’ has come to light. Vigilance officers have exposed this after a major investigation. It has been revealed that there has been large scale fraud in the purchase of silk dupattas. This problem was going on from 2015 to 2025 i.e. for the last 10 years. The temple administration is estimated to suffer a loss of more than Rs 54 crore due to this scam.
Polyester sold as real silk: Vigilance officials found that contractors supplied fake silk dupattas to the temple. In the papers it was described as 100 percent polyester-silk mix and billing was done accordingly. But the reality was something else.
, A contractor supplied about 15,000 dupattas.
, The price of one scarf was recovered at Rs 1,389.
, It was claimed that these were made of genuine silk.
To know the truth, the officials sent samples of these dupattas to two different labs. Central Silk Board was also included in these. The lab report confirmed this scam. It became clear in the report that these dupattas were not made of silk, but of polyester.
Chairman handed over investigation to ACB: TTD Chairman BR Naidu has taken a strict stance on this ‘Pattu Vastralu’ (silk scarf) scam. He said, ‘We have found out that there were some discrepancies in the procurement department. Taking cognizance of this, we have handed over the investigation to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). Now ACB will investigate this entire network in depth.
TTD has been in constant controversies: Many scams have come to light in Tirupati temple in recent times. In September 2024, there was a big controversy regarding the sacred Laddu Prasadam. Then the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh had alleged that instead of pure cow’s ghee, animal fat or adulterated ghee was being used in laddus. Its investigation is being done by SIT under the supervision of CBI. Apart from this, the Parakamani case came to light in April 2023. Then a clerk, CV Ravi Kumar, was caught red-handed stealing money from the ‘Shriwari Hundi’ donation box.
