Fact Check: Image of man laden with gold is not a priest from Tirumala temple
A special investigation team (SIT) has started probe into allegations that adulterated ghee, which might have been
man laden with gold
A special investigation team (SIT) has started probe into allegations that adulterated ghee, which might have been mixed with animal fat, was used to prepare the Laddu prasadam at Tirumala temple for Lord Sri Venkateswara. The allegations of adulteration has hurt the sentiment of millions of devotees. The SIT team, headed by Guntur Range IG Sarvashresth Tripathi, started the probe after the case was registered at the Tirupati East police station. The 9-member team, which includes DIG Gopinath Jatti, Kadapa SP Harshavardhan Raju, and additional SP Venkat Rao, is investigating the quality of ghee supplied to TTD by the Tamil Nadu-based AR Dairy Foods Pvt. Ltd.
Amidst all this, several social media users are sharing a collage of a few images of a man, wearing gold ornaments heavily, with the claim that he is the priest at the Tirumala temple.
The social media users shared the image with the claim in Hindi that goes “तिरुपति बालाजी मंदिर के पंडित कि तीन बेटियों की शादी का फोटो और तीनों के सोने के गहनों की वजन 125kg हैं! देशवासियों को यह सोचना चाहिए की दान कहाँ करें, जिससे हमारा दान का लाभ गरीब पीड़ित बेसहारा अस्वस्थ अशिक्षित लोगों को मिले”. When translated, it reads: "This priest at Tirupati Balaji temple had performed the marriages of his three daughters gifting them with ornaments weighing 125 kg. People in the country should think about where should they give their money as donation. They should give it to the poor, destitute, uneducated and those suffering from diseases."
तिरुपति बालाजी मंदिर के पंडित की लड़कियों के फोटो और अंध भक्तों को लगता है मेरा फायदा हो रहा है
Fact Check:
The claim is False. The images in circulation belong to a man from Pakistan, not a priest in Tirumala temple.
When we performed a reverse image search on Google, we found that the image was in circulation with almost the same claim in the year 2018 also.
When we searched further, we found a Facebook page named Goldman Kaka 222, where he shared several images of him wearing lot of jewellery. In several posts, he shares the images with the caption ‘It's artificial Jewellery for sale”
A Pakistani news channel named Samaa TV published his interview in YouTube in October 2018. In this video, the narrator mentions that the person seen in the video is Amjad Saeed hailing from Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
When we searched for the image of the women laden with golden ornaments using reverse image search, we found the image has been online for many years and was also shared on social media in 2016.
There is no relation between the images shared together. Therefore, the viral images in circulation are not related to any priest working at the Tirumala Temple. The man in the pictures is a Pakistani man. The claim is False.