Tirumala, October 9, 2013: The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) chairman K. Bapiraju on Tuesday faced some unpleasant moments when the overzealous security personnel intercepted his vehicle while he was on his way to the ‘Vahanam mandapam’ to participate in the procession of ‘Kalpa Vriksha vahanam’.

Mr. Bapiraju and his wife alighted from the vehicle at Ram Baigaicha guest house where it was stopped and walked all the way to the mandapam situated in front of the main temple complex.

The district police which has made foolproof arrangements in anticipation of heavy crowd for the auspicious ‘Garuda Seva’ festival slated on Wednesday decided to rehearse the security exercise and instructed its personnel to strictly abide by the instructions.

As per the instructions, all the VIP vehicles were to be stopped at the Ram Baigaicha guest house.

Vehicles of the VIPs who fell under the protocol category were stopped even though specific instructions were imparted to the security personnel not to intercept them.

This led to a row and the officials were forced to give an explanation.

Source: The Hindu, October 9, 2013