Kalaburagi: Fraud Temple donation website busted; Complaint filed against priests

Kalaburagi: A complaint has been filed against the priests of Shri Dattatreya temple in Deval Ganagapur, Afzalpur Taluk for creating fake temple websites and asking for donations from the devotees.

It is said that the temple comes under Muzrai (Hindu religious endowment) department.

The accused created a fake website through which they asked for donations from the devotees. Crores of rupees have been embezzled from the devotees under the guise of donations.  This illegal website was created under the name Shri Dattatreya temple.

It is said that the priests made the devotees pay Rs 10,000- 50,000 online for a ‘Puja’ in the temple which otherwise costs less than Rs 1,000.

The scam came to light when Yashwant Gurukar, President of the Dattatreya temple development committee visited the temple to check the official website of the temple.  Gurukar found that there were around 6-7 fake websites of the temples that were run by the priests.

It was then revealed that around Rs 20 crore was collected by the priests in the span of 6 years.

Also, the development committee accused the priests of stealing the money from temple hundi (donation box) by switching off the nearby CCTV cameras.

The website has now been deleted. Further investigations are underway.