The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged laddu ghee adulteration at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has uncovered a massive fraud, revealing that a Uttarakhand-based dairy firm supplied an estimated 68 lakh kg of fake ghee worth ₹250 crore to the TTD between 2019 and 2024.
The shocking details were gathered by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), led by the CBI, following the arrest of one of the accused, Ajay Kumar Sugandh. The SIT presented these findings in a remand report before the Nellore court.
🧪 Modus Operandi: Fake Ghee and Forged Records
The investigation revealed that the accused dairy, Bhole Baba Organic Dairy, run by promoters Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain, never procured a single drop of milk or butter from any source. Instead, the promoters:
- Set up a fake desi ghee manufacturing unit.
- Forged milk procurement and payment records to establish false credibility.
- Procured chemicals like monodiglycerides and acetic acid ester from suppliers like Ajay Kumar Sugandh to create the synthetic ghee and manipulate quality tests (such as the Reichert-Meissl value).
Ajay Kumar Sugandh was arrested for allegedly supplying these industrial chemicals to the Bhole Baba Organic dairy, which was contracted to supply ghee used in the preparation of the sacred laddu prasadam for the Tirupati Temple in Andhra Pradesh.
🔄 Blacklisted Firm Used Proxy Dairies
Despite being disqualified and blacklisted from supplying ghee in 2022, the Bhole Baba Organic dairy continued its fraudulent activities. The promoters kept supplying adulterated ghee to the TTD by bidding for contracts through a network of other dairies, including:
- Vyshnavi Dairy (Tirupati-based)
- Mal Ganga Dairy (UP-based)
- AR Dairy Foods (Tamil Nadu-based)
🚨 Rejected Ghee Rerouted and Resupplied
The probe also exposed a specific instance of rejected stock being criminally re-supplied to the temple trust:
- In July 2024, four containers of ghee stocks allegedly supplied through AR Dairy were rejected by the TTD due to adulteration with animal fat.
- A joint inspection by the FSSAI and the SIT at the AR Dairy plant in Dindigul revealed the tankers never returned to AR Dairy but were diverted to a local stone crushing unit near the Vyshnavi dairy plant.
- In August 2024, the Vyshnavi Dairy changed the labels, improved the quality and consistency of the adulterated ghee, and supplied the same rejected stock back to the TTD.
The SIT report noted that this same batch of adulterated ghee was subsequently used in the preparation of the sacred Tirupati Laddu prasadams distributed to devotees.