Vizianagaram, February 03: Some of the most valuable jewellery of the Vizianagaram Samsthanam is reportedly missing from the State Bank of India’s strong room.
Maharaja Alaknarayan Society of Arts and Sciences (MANSAS) Trust chairman and Pusapati family’s elder son P Ananda Gajapati Raju alleged here on Tuesday that some of the jewelery of the Vizinagaram Samsthanam was missing and demanded a probe by the Endowments Department into the matter. The priceless jewellery was kept in a box and stored in the strongroom of the State Bank of India branch in the town way back in 1957. The box’s contents were checked later only once in 1962 and there had been no further verification since then.
On Tuesday, Ananda Gajapati Raju, accompanied by endowments assistant commissioner Ch Hanumantha Rao, opened the box amidst police security.
To his shock and dismay, the Pusapati clan’s scion found an inner small box containing valuable jewellery missing.
The big box was then released from the bank and shifted to MANSAS office where the jewellery was tallied with the records and it was found that some of the jewellery in that too was missing.
The assistant commissioner of endowments said that they would checkwith all the other banks if any jewellery of the Samsthanam were kept with them.
Treating it as an important case, the endowments department announced that it would conduct investigation into the theft and try to recover the jewellery.
Other details like the the quantity and value of the missing jewellery are awaited.
–Agencies