Tirupati Laddu Scam: Spurious ghee for TTD was made with palm oil and not milk

The Special Investigation Team probing the adulteration of the Tirupati Laddu has revealed that Uttarakhand-based Bhole Baba Organic Dairy had supplied Rs 250 crore worth of spurious ghee to make the sacred prasadam between 2019 and 2024.

The arrest of Ajay Kumar Sugandh last week revealed that he had supplied chemicals such as monoglycerides and acetic acid esters to produce 68 lakh kg of ghee using palm oil without procuring even a drop of milk. Although the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam had blacklisted Bhole Baba Dairy in 2022 following complaints of adulteration, it continued to supply the spurious ghee through various front companies.

Advertisement

The latest revelations about the extent of adulteration in ghee in Tirupati laddus came in the remand report submitted by the SIT before the Nellore ACB court seeking the remand of Ajay Kumar Sugandh, designated as the 16th accused in the case. Last month, the SIT had arrested K Chinna Apanna, a close aide of the then TTD chairman YV Subba Reddy, who is also the uncle of the former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

The period of supply of adulterated ghee to TTD coincides with the chief ministership of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. Apanna allegedly played a key role in awarding contracts to these front companies of Bhole Baba Dairy run by Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain. They made the adulterated ghee with palm oil and palm kernels and other chemicals while forging milk procurement and payment records. The fraud was revealed after investigators contacted local milk suppliers. The acetic acid esters were used to mimic the Reichert Meissl (RM) value of pure ghee. Even when TTD returned the ghee, suspecting it to be spurious, the company returned the same product to the richest temple under the name of another front company.

Following the latest revelation by the CBI-supervised SIT, Andhra Pradesh HRD minister Nara Lokesh Monday stated that the guilty will face stern action. He stated, “The Supreme Court-appointed SIT has exposed the truth. The guilty will face the full weight of the law. This isn’t adulteration – it is a deliberate assault on the faith of Hindus, a desecration of our belief, and a crime against the soul of Bharat. Those who played with the sacred must pay the price.”