JSP corporator wants probe into Sarada Peetham’s assets

Visakhapatnam: Jana Sena Party leader and GVMC corporator Peethala Murthy Yadav demanded that the CBI and ED should investigate the assets and illegally earned money by mediating with the political party leaders under the guise of Visakha Sri Sarada Peetham.

Speaking to the media here on Thursday, he demanded seizure of unaccounted assets of the peetham with immediate effect. Seers of Visakha Sri Sarada Peetham Swaroopanandendra Saraswati and Swatmanandendra Saraswati Swami are dealing with political leaders to meet their personal agenda, he allleged.

The JSP corporator said that between 2019-24, the then Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and K Chandrashkar Rao were trapped in the pretext of performing pujas and peetham gained government lands worth Rs 500 crore in the process. Murthy Yadav questioned how seers like Swaroopanandendra Saraswati and Swatmanandendra Saraswati, who are into spiritual service, have more than Rs 100 crore and kilos of gold to their credit. He alleged that in 2018, peetham had only Rs 1 crore as a fixed deposit and it reached Rs 44 crore by 2024. He also alleged that there are deposits of more than Rs 60 crore in the name of benamis.

In order to term it as peetham, Murthy Yadav said that there should be a ‘dharmadhikari’ and alleged that there is no such person at the peetham.

Further, Murthy Yadav said that property disputes and settlements are happening on a large scale in the peetham, and there are fights among them for crores of rupees to be shared through settlements.

The JSP leader demanded the government to look into the activities and irregularities, retrieve the properties and conduct an inquiry against them.