A surprising case of a deceased beggar who had earned Rs 10 lakh with no one to inherit has surfaced on Monday in the temple town of Tirumala when officials reached to repossess the home allotted to him.

The deceased beggar Srinivasachari was allotted a house at Seshachalam near Tirumala, where he had been living since 2007. Following his death due to ill-health last year,  the TTD has decided to repossess the house allotted to him as he had no known family members to inherit the house.

As per the order, when TTD and revenue department officials landed at the house, they searched the belongings and came upon two trunks containing currency notes of various denominations, including some old Rs.1,000 notes in circulation before the demonetisation.

Officials of the vigilance department of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) have recovered the currency notes in various denominations worth Rs.10 lakhs from the home of Srinivasachari, who was known to have made a living through alms. Surprised and as per the rules, they have deposited the money with the TTD treasury.

Tirumala temple
Tirumala templeIANS

Tirumala Temple

The hill-top shrine of Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala is the world's richest Hindu temple, with thousands of pilgrims visiting the temple daily. Last year, the temple was closed for nearly ten weeks due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The daily hundi collections of Tirumala temple used to average Rs 2.96 crore in the pre-Covid-19 period and in January this year too, despite a drastic decline in footfall, the average revenue received was in the range of Rs. 3.15 crore a day.

Compared to 25.62 lakh pilgrims in January 2020 and the Hundi collection of an income of about Rs. 91.88 crore, the number of visitors in January 2021 was 12.64 lakh but the Srivari Hundi had registered an income of about Rs. 97.93 crore, said reports.

It shows that the income being generated from hundi this year is increasing, though the pilgrim footfall is still low – at half of the pre-Covid rush.

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