Police made some progress in the case Saturday by recovering seven of the 10 gold items and arresting the private lender. The recovered items weigh 1.305 kg.

TTD's chief vigilance office Krishna Rao visited the temple and said they had launched investigations into the incident. The vigilance officials also questioned other employees of the temple. He told reporters that special officers were being appointed to conduct inventories at all TTD temples.

The High Court had Thursday directed the TTD to conduct an inventory of the ornaments in all the TTD temples and submit a detailed report within two months.

The order came on a petition alleging that the jewellery estimated to be worth over Rs.50,000 crore was being misappropriated and there was no accountability.

There are at least a dozen temples and sub-shrines which come under TTD. The biggest and most famous is Lord Venkateshwara temple atop Tirumala Hills, which is visited by about 100,000 people every day.

Meanwhile, leader of opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu has demanded a thorough probe into the property of all the temples in the state. 'When the property of God is not safe under this government, who will protect the people and their property,' he asked.