Unrelated Video Shared As Income Tax Raid On Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Board Member J Sekhar Reddy

Image Credit: Twitter

The Logical Indian Crew

Unrelated Video Shared As Income Tax Raid On Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Board Member J Sekhar Reddy

People on social media are sharing a video with a claim that gold and cash was recovered from an Income Tax raid on Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) board member J Sekhar Reddy. The Logical Indian Fact Check team verifies the claim.

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A video of policemen showing a huge quantity of seized or recovered gold jewellery is viral on social media claiming that the gold and cash were recovered after an Income Tax raid on Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) board member J Sekhar Reddy.

J. Sekar alias Sekar Reddy is an industrialist and Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) member.

One of the viral posts says, "Dear Tirupati Tirumala Bhaktas! Ur Donation & Gold is with J.Shekar Reddy, 1 of 17 Trustees. IT officers raided his home & was caught with ₹106 Crore Cash,127Kg Gold and ₹ 10 Cr worth New Rs.2000 notes. What about other 16 trustees of TTD. Is it used for conversion?".

A Facebook user shared this video and captioned it in English, "Dear friends,this is Mr J .Shekar Reddy , one of the 17 trustees of Tirupathi Tirumala Temple . IT officers raided his house and farm house . Rs 106 crores in cash was seized along with 127 kg gold biscuits , diamonds worth 60 crores."

It is being widely shared across social media platforms with similar claims.

Image Credit: Facebook

Claim:

Viral video is of the gold and cash recovered after an Income Tax raid on Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) board member J Sekhar Reddy.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian Fact Check team verified the claim and found it to be false. The viral video is from Tamil Nadu, where police recovered jewellery stolen from a showroom in Vellore, Tamil Nadu.

We conducted a keyframe analysis on the video using InVid's Keyframe tool. Following a reverse image search, we found the still of the viral video in a report of the Indian Express dated December 22 2021. According to the report, Tamil Nadu police recovered 15.9 kg of stolen gold and diamonds worth Rs 8 crore from a burial ground in Odukathur after a burglary took place at a popular jewellery showroom in Vellore on December 15.

Image Credit: The India Express

We also found several other media reports on this incident. According to the report of the Hindu, Tamil Nadu police arrested T. K. Raman, 23, a resident of Kuchipalayam village near Pallikonda. The accused buried the stolen jewellery in the graveyard. According to the report of Republic Bharat, the robbers wore a Lion mask to conceal their identity while they robbed the shop.

On further investigation, we also found a tweet from the handle of ASP Vellore, in which the picture of recovered jewellery can be seen. They captioned it in English, "What a chase! After successful closure of 'Amma Biriyani' case worth 250 svrns of gold, with arrest of Rayapati Vengiah & recovery, another gem from@VellorePolice. 'Jos Alukkas' theft booty of 16 kg/ 2000 svrns gold worth Rs 8.5 crore recovered and accused secured within a week."

Who is J. Sekar alias Sekar Reddy

We did a keyword search regarding Sekar Reddy and found several media reports related to the raid conducted by Income Tax officials and recovering Rs 106.52 crore in cash and 127 kg of gold from the premises of Reddy and his close associates on December 8, 2016. IT officials also recovered ten crores of new notes from the possession of the Reddys while thousands of people were queuing up in banks and ATMs after PM Modi announced demonetisation in India. After the raid, he was removed from the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) board. Later, a special CBI court released him as there was no evidence, and he was specially invited to be a TTD board member.

Image Credit: Business Standard

It is evident from our investigation that the viral video is from Tamil Nadu, where police recovered jewellery stolen from a showroom in Vellore, Tamil Nadu and falsely linked it with a claim that the video is of an income tax department raid at Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam Trust Board member J Sekhar Reddy's house. Hence, the viral claim is false.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

Also Read: CCTV Footage Of Boy Stabbing Girl In Gopalganj, Bihar Shared With False Communal Spin

Contributors Suggest Correction
Writer : Jakir Hassan
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Editor : Bharat Nayak
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Creatives : Jakir Hassan

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