Tirupati: Security chinks at the Lord Venkateswara temple were exposed on Saturday morning when three Pune youths managed to open an emergency gate and enter the queue lines at Tirumala . According to TTD vigilance and security department officials, a group of 15 youths from Pune were visiting the temple.While 12 of them trekked up to Tirumala and got ‘Divya darshan’ tokens, three of them failed to get the tokens.In the early hours of Saturday, the three sneaked into the lines near the Elephant Gate point adjacent to the temple. “All that they had to do was use a duplicate key with the help of which they easily opened the emergency gate and walked into the queue lines like any other normal devotee,” said a security official. However, they were spotted and taken into custody by the temple’s security officials at the pilgrim frisking point near Mahadwaram, after they failed to produce ‘Suprabatham darshan’ tickets. When questioned, the youths feigned ignorance.“We wanted to have darshan of Lord Balaji but did not know where to go.We tried to open a gate near the temple with the help of a TTD guesthouse room key and it opened, and we entered the queue lines,” they said. Meanwhile, the security wing sleuths handed over the three — identified as Shubham, Samarath and Rishi— to the Tirumala police. A complaint has also been lodged against the trio for trespassing into TTD premises in an unauthorised manner. The cops later ruled out any ulterior motive behind the act.

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