Puttur: The CBI team arrived in Puttur in connection with Swami Raghavendra Thirtha fraud case on Saturday. The investigating team based on an information that the seer is in Puttur, have arrived at the town and visited Sathyashodhana Trust near Kemmayi for investigation.

The investigating team has also asked the Trust to inform if they come to know about his whereabouts.

Swami Raghavendra Thirtha of Kashi Math had gone absconding after misappropriating Rs 69.49 lakh of Kashi Mutt, Tirumala branch in collusion with his associates.

Shivananda Pai, resident of Ernakulam, was given Sanyasa Deeksha in the year 1989 and named as Raghavendra Thirtha. In 1994, some rituals at Sri Kashi Mutt Samsthan were entrusted to him by his senior swamiji Sudhindra Thirtha who was also the matadhipathi of Sri Kashi Mutt Samsthan, Varanasi.

The junior swamiji later disassociated himself from the Mutt due to a misunderstanding with his guru and took away with him the Parikaras belonging to the Mutt.

In 2000, Raghavendra Thirtha filed a declaratory suit at Tirupati claiming that the Matadhipathya (total control of the Samsthan) of the Samsthan, stating that the senior pontiff had abdicated the Matadhipathya in 1994.

The fourth additional district judge of Tirupati dismissed the suit on January 28, 2009, with a mandatory injunction to return all the deities and paraphernalia of Sri Kashi Mutt Samsthan to Sudhindra Thirtha Swamiji within a month of the order.

Now the Andhra Police along with CBI team have launched a manhunt for the absconding seer.