Tirupati: A Tirupati court has granted five-day SIT custody to four persons accused in the laddu adulteration case.
Tirupati Second Additional Munsif Court Judge P Koteswara Rao allowed the custody on Thursday after public prosecutor P. Jayasekhar and CBI court public prosecutor Gopinath presented their arguments. They highlighted that further investigation would unveil more facts.
The accused, identified as Pomil Jain and Bipin Jain, former directors of Roorkee-based Bhole Baba Dairy; Apoorva Chavada, CEO of Vishnavi Dairy; and Raju Rajasekharan, MD of AR Dairy, were reportedly not cooperating with CBI-led SIT investigations, they said.
The prosecutors stated that crucial information related to Bhole Baba Dairy still needed to be uncovered. Supreme Court lawyer Vani, along with two others, representing the accused, requested for bail. After hearing both sides, the judge extended the SIT custody from February 14 to 18.
On Thursday, EE Prasad, marketing godown manager, and members of the procurement department were interrogated separately at the SIT office in Bhudevi Complex in Alipiri. The inquiry focused on the quality testing of ghee and checked whether there were any discrepancies in it. EE Prasad told that he was not involved in the tender process with AR Dairy and was unaware of the details.
Further investigations were also carried out in Uttarakhand's Roorkee district, where Bhole Baba Dairy is based, and in Dehradun, where the Jain brothers, former directors of the dairy, reside.
The SIT team investigated the staff regarding orders placed by Sri Vaishnavi Dairy for ghee. Some individuals have reportedly been detained for questioning.
Also, a laboratory officer from AR Dairy has been summoned to the Tirupati SIT office for questioning regarding the ghee quality tests, particularly about a tanker that was returned from Tirumala due to quality issues. Marketing staff were also questioned in connection with the investigation.
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