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| - Fact Check: This video DOES NOT show an IT raid on a Tirupati priest's home
This 2021 video from Vellore, Tamil Nadu, shows jewellery recovered from a robber. It has nothing to do with the Sri Venkateswara Swami Temple in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.
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India Today Fact Check
This video from Vellore, Tamil Nadu, shows police recovering jewellery stolen from a store in December 2021.
A video of jewellery displayed on a table was shared online. Allegedly, this haul was recovered from the house of a priest serving at the Sri Venkateswara Swami Temple in Andhra Pradesh’s Tirupati.
The video was shared with captions like: “Do you know how much money, gold and diamonds were found when the income tax department raided the house of one of the 16 priests serving Tirupati Thimmappa? 128 kg gold, 150 crores in cash, 70 crores worth of diamonds. At least think now while donating. Does God want money, gold, diamonds? One man got so much, how much can the remaining 15 priests have in their house?” The archive of a similar post can be seen here.
India Today Fact Check found that this 2021 video from Tamil Nadu shows jewellery recovered following a robbery. It has nothing to do with the Sri Venkateswara Swami Temple in Tirupati.
Our Probe
A reverse search of the viral video’s keyframes led us to a similar-looking clip in a post from December 20, 2021. The post claimed that the police had arrested a burglar, who drilled a hole into Vellore’s Jos Alukkas jewellery store and robbed 15 kg of gold and diamond jewellery.
We then found several news reports about this incident from December 2021. These reports featured the viral clip or its screengrabs. According to the Indian Express, on December 15, 2021, there was a burglary at the Jos Alukkas showroom in Thottapalayam, Vellore in Tamil Nadu. The police reportedly recovered 15.9 kg of stolen gold and diamonds worth Rs 8 crore from a burial ground in Odukathur.
The accused V Teekaraman, a mason from Kuchipalayam in Pallikonda who had cases of two-wheeler and laptop thefts against him, allegedly watched the showroom closely for a period before drilling a hole in the wall at the back to enter the store. Vellore SP S Rajesh Kannan said the CCTV cameras and the burglary alarm at the store were not working at the time of the robbery.
The official X account of the Tamil Nadu Police also shared a post about this at the time.
We also did not find any credible reports of jewellery being recovered from the house of a Sri Venkateswara Swami Temple priest. Thus, it’s clear that the viral claim is false.
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