Hyderabad, Aug 22 - Police in Andhra Pradesh's temple town of Tirupati Saturday booked a case of theft and cheating against the chief priest of a temple under the control of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) for having mortgaged its jewellery to a private lender to raise money for personal use.

The police also arrested a private lender who gave the priest Rs.1 million for pledging the jewellery and recovered seven gold items weighing over one kilogram. A police officer said they were trying to trace three other gold items which the priest got released from the pawn broker by paying Rs.300,000.

Police booked a case of theft, cheating, criminal breach of trust against Venkatramana Deekshithulu, the head priest of the TTD-run Sri Kodandarama Swamy temple. Sagar Lal, the private lender, was also booked for receiving stolen property.

The incident came to light Friday evening, sending shock waves in the TTD and temple circles. The priest's act was exposed when officials of TTD, which runs the affairs of world's richest Lord Venkateshwara temple, were conducting an inventory of the ornaments in all the TTD temples as directed by the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

The priest, who was custodian of the temple jewellery, also made an abortive bid to commit suicide by swallowing sleeping pills. He confessed his crime saying he did it due to poverty. He was later taken into custody by the police.