A major row is underway in Andhra Pradesh after allegations that 'tantrik' prayers and rituals were performed at the Kalabhairava temple, at Vedam village, in Chittoor district. The police and authorities who oversee the affairs of the temple, said that the incident took place in the early hours of Wednesday.
The police, who received a tip-off, caught the four people red-handed, when they visited the temple at midnight on Wednesday.
Four people from Tamil Nadu were questioned by the police, along with an Assistant Executive Officer (AEO), Dhanpal, who allegedly allowed them into the temple to perform rituals late in the night. Investigation officials said that no animal or human sacrifice had taken place as part of the tantrik prayers.
As the incident triggered a row, Andhra Pradesh Endowments Minister Vellampalli Srinivasa Rao took note, and issued orders for a departmental inquiry, which will also probe the role of the AEO. The minister, who served a notice to the Endowments Secretary, asked for a report within 24 hours.
This is not the first time that such an incident has been reported from Andhra Pradesh.
In December last year, several videos and photos of tantric rituals being performed at Gopalapuram's Lord Bhairava Swamy temple in Visakhapatnam district, had kicked up a storm.
In January last year, a similar sequence of events took place in Vijayawada's Kanaka Durga temple, which sees thousands of visitors each day. The Executive Officer (EO) of the governing body of the temple was sacked, after tantric rituals allegedly took place inside the sanctum sanctum of the temple on December 26, 2017.
CCTV footage at the time, had showed priests decking up the presiding deity as Goddess Kali and allegedly performing ‘Bhairavi puja’ for more than two hours.
However, authorities refuted the allegations and said that the priests had only performed a ritual to ‘clean’ the sanctum sanctorum by reciting mantras, as part of a monthly procedure.