A three-minute video, featuring an astrologer assert March 6 as a rare sacred day for a temple here and that went viral, has attracted nearly three lakh devotees from near and far, causing a ‘stampede like’ situation besides choking the national highway for hours and extending to many kilometres on Wednesday.
According to a Hyderabad-based astrologer Lakshmikant Sharma, who appears on popular devotional and television news channels, Wednesday – the new moon day, was particularly auspicious, one occurring after 89 years.
And praying at the Gopalayapalli Sri Varijala Venugopala Swamy temple in Chityala along the NH-65 (Hyderabad-Vijayawada) on the occasion, would remedy all astrological dosha, he advocated in a recent show.
But the Wednesday rush, hoping for “Rajayogam, solutions to financial problems, marriage, reproductive fertility, good education for children and remedies for dosha”, as assured by Mr. Sharma, turned out to be unprecedented with devotees from as far as Karnataka, Odisha and Vizianagaram and other parts thronging. Absence of any amenities, or information to the police for arrangements, soon resulted in an uncontrolled situation, and the highway traffic too came to a standstill for hours.
However, “auspicious Amavasya”, and a petition by Jana Vignana Vedika, an organisation that advocates science in daily life, made the Nalgonda police suspect the case and soon pull the thread.
According to district superintendent of police A.V. Ranganath, the rare sacred day temple plan was devised by local realtors, members from the temple trust and false preachers – to promote realty value around the temple. “We checked the call data of real estate agents, trustees and others. This is false preaching to cheat people. We are filing criminal cases,” he said.
Nearly the whole of Nalgonda police and the 12th battalion reserve police were on toes at Chityala, to manage devotee crowd and highway traffic. The rush subsided only in the evening.
Police at the Narketpally station said that many cases were booked against Mr. Sharma and temple trust chairman and eldest of the ‘Komatireddy brothers’ Komatireddy Mohan Reddy.
None of the special visitors – Munugode MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, Nalgonda former MLA Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, Nakrekal MLA Chirumarthi Lingaiah, and Mr. Sharma, who was to perform the Nava Naga Datta yagna, as scheduled, made it to the hill shrine.