Tirupati: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Sunday arrested four people in connection with the adulterated ghee case that rocked Tirumala a few months back.
The accused — Vipin and Pomil Jain, the directors of Bholebaba Organic Dairy Private Ltd. based out of Roorkee in Uttarakhand; Apoorva Chandra, CEO of Sri Vaishnavi Dairy Pvt Ltd. of Penubaka in Srikalahasti and Dr Raju Rajasejharan, the MD of AR Dairy located in Dindigul of Tamil Nadu — have been taken into the custody in Tirupati.
"Four people have been arrested. Two persons (Bipin Jain and Pomi Jain) were of Bhole Baba Dairy, Apoorva Chawda of Vaihsnavi Dairy and (Raju) Rajasekharan of AR Dairy," an official said. According to sources, the SIT probe has revealed serious violations at every step of ghee supply, leading to the arrests.
The arrests follow an apex court-ordered investigation into complaints of adulterated ghee being supplied for the preparation of the laddu prasadam in the Tirumala temple during the YSRCP regime. The accused were granted remand till February 20 by the Second Additional Munsif Court judge.
Investigators revealed that Srivaishnavi Dairy secured the tender in the name of AR Dairy by submitting false documents and fake seals. The SIT also found that Bholebaba Organic Dairy could not produce large quantities of ghee and procured and supplied it from external sources.
A suspicious financial trail was also unearthed in which Bholebaba Dairy sold ghee to Srivaishnavi Dairy at ₹355 per kg which supplied it to AR Dairy for ₹319.8 a kg. Sleuths wondered how the company could sell ghee at a loss unless it was of poor standards and the accused failed to come up with a satisfactory justification for the invoices, e-way bills, toll receipts and other evidence during the investigation.
The YSRCP government awarded AR Dairy a contract to supply 10 lakh kg of ghee at ₹319.80 per kg beginning June 2023. However, in July 2023, four tankers of ghee were flagged by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) for quality concerns. The ghee samples were sent to the NDDB Calf Lab in Gujarat which confirmed traces of beef and pork fat.
Following the report, the state government formed an SIT to probe the case. In October 2023, the top court ordered a joint investigation comprising members from the CBI, Anadhra Pradesh Police and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
The SIT concluded that the ghee mafia manipulated invoices and supplied adulterated ghee to Tirumala under different invoice numbers. When questioned, the accused failed to provide clear answers, leading to their arrest.
Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu in September claimed that animal fat was used in preparing Tirupati laddus during the previous YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led regime in the state, triggering a massive political row.
During an NDA legislative party meeting in the southern state in 2024, Naidu alleged that the erstwhile YSRCP government did not even spare Sri Venkateswara temple and used substandard ingredients and animal fats to make the laddus. The allegations sparked a massive controversy across the country.
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