A major fraud has come to light at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the body that manages the famous Tirumala temple. For almost a decade, the temple reportedly received thousands of dupattas and shawls that were billed as pure mulberry silk but were actually made of cheap polyester. The total value of these purchases is now estimated at more than Rs 54 crore.
These shawls and dupattas are important in the temple’s daily activities. They are used during special blessings, given to VIP devotees, and offered to major donors as part of temple traditions. Because of this significance, TTD’s tender rules clearly required suppliers to provide only pure silk with proper quality certificates and holograms.
The scam came to light when TTD’s vigilance team noticed that the material in the new consignments did not look or feel like silk. To verify this, the fabric samples were sent to two accredited laboratories, including one under the Central Silk Board. Both labs confirmed the same finding: the items were 100 percent polyester, without any silk content. They also lacked the mandatory silk authentication holograms, showing clear violation of tender conditions.
TTD Chairman B.R. Naidu revealed that the supplier sold dupattas at almost four times their usual market price. A shawl normally costing around Rs 350 was billed to TTD for about Rs 1,300. Over the years, the overpricing and fake material added up to more than Rs 54 crore of temple funds.
Preliminary findings show that one company and its associated partners were responsible for most of the supplies during this period. In response, TTD has cancelled all tenders linked to the accused supplier. The board has now asked the Andhra Pradesh Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to conduct a detailed investigation and take action against those involved.
This is the latest in a series of controversies surrounding the Tirumala temple. Earlier, questions were raised about the quality of ghee used in temple prasadam and issues related to donations. With this new scam, there is growing demand for stricter checks, stronger monitoring, and complete transparency in TTD’s procurement processes, to protect both temple traditions and devotee trust.
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