Tirumala police registered cases against individuals, administrators of news apps, and social media users allegedly for spreading fallacious information against the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD).
The cases were registered based on a complaint lodged by TTD officials.
Tirumala Two Town police, who had earlier booked a case against an individual for claiming that TTD member trustee Sudha Narayana Murthy resigned from her trusteeship, also registered a complaint against Tamil actor Sivakumar based on a complaint lodged by a person named Tamilmaniyan.
“Mr. Sivakumar is spreading false information against the temple administration, and is urging the public not to visit Tirumala, on the grounds that anti-social activities are going on in the town,” Mr. Tamilmaniyan said in an email to the TTD.
Perturbed at the gravity of the allegations in Mr. Tamilmaniyan’s email, TTD officials lodged a complaint with the police.
A complaint was also lodged against Macharla Srinivasulu, Prashanth, and Mungara Sivaraju, administrators of ‘way2news’ app, and Tirupati Vaartha, for spreading false information that devotees will not be allowed for darshan at the temple till June 30.
False information posted on a WhatsApp group called ‘Godavari News’ allegedly caused a lot of chaos and confusion among devotees, prompting the police to register a case under the A.P. Epidemic Diseases Act.
A case was registered against a Facebook user who had posted objectionable content on his page on May 7.