TTD ghee adulteration case widens: CBI names 11 more accused, including 7 staff

Tirupati: The CBI-led Special Investigation Team (SIT) has intensified its probe into the adulterated ghee scandal in Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD).

In a recent submission to the Nellore ACB Court, the SIT filed a memo adding 11 more individuals to the list of accused. Among them, seven are employees of TTD.

Total number of accused at 35

With the latest additions, the total number of accused in the case has risen to 35, out of which 10 have already been arrested.

The investigation agency has so far registered cases against general managers, senior assistants and junior assistants who served in the TTD purchase department between 2019 and 2024.

Former SV Goshala director Harinath Reddy, along with former GMs Jagadishwar Reddy and Muralikrishna, are reportedly among those newly named.

68 lakh kg ghee found adulterated

The SIT reported that the then TTD Board of Trustees paid Rs 250 crore to four dairies — Bhole Baba Dairy (Uttarakhand), AR Dairy (Dindigul, Tamil Nadu), Vaishnavi Dairy (Punabaka, Tirupati district), and Malganga Dairy (Uttar Pradesh) — for ghee supplies. Of the 1.61 crore kg of ghee procured, 68 lakh kg was found to be adulterated.

According to the investigators, on average, 3.5–4 lakh laddus are prepared daily at the Srivari Temple, requiring 12,000–13,000 kg of ghee. SIT officials stated that throughout the five-year period, around 40 per cent of the ghee used daily was adulterated.

The investigation further alleged that the then TTD Board of Trustees and officials under the YSRCP government colluded with suppliers to enable large-scale corruption. The SIT observed that adulterated ghee laddus were knowingly distributed to devotees, causing deep hurt to religious sentiments.

When did this start?

The controversy started in September 2024 when Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu alleged that the TTD laddus were adulterated with animal fat under the previous regime. An SIT was then formed under direction from the court, and began examining procurement records, supply chains and quality-testing methods for the ghee used by TTD.

What are the findings:

1. Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain, Directors of Bhole Baba Oroganic Dairy Milk, without procuring the milk, prepared the adulterated ghee at their plant at Bhagwanpur, near Roorkee, Uttarakhand, by mixing the adulterants like Palm oil, Palm Kernel Oil and Palmolein

2. The dairy in Uttarakhand never procured a drop of milk or butter from anywhere but managed to supply 68 lakh kg of ghee worth Rs 250 crore to the TTD.

3. As part of a conspiracy, Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain supplied the said adulterated ghee to the TTD through their company, Bhole Baba Oroganic Dairy Milk, and also through Sri Vyshnavi Dairy Specialties, near Srikalahasti, Malganga Milk and Agro Products, near Pune and AR Dairy Food Private Ltd, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, which was used for the preparation of sacred prasadams of Sri Venkateswara Swamy, which hurt the religious sentiments of crores of devotees.

4. The CBI probe stated that four containers of ghee stocks adulterated with animal fat allegedly supplied by AR dairy and subsequently rejected by the TTD in July last year were supplied back to the Tirupati trust.

5. The rejected four ghee tankers never returned to the AR dairy plant but were diverted to a local stone crushing unit located close to the Vyshnavi dairy plant.

4. The dairy promoters set up a fake ghee manufacturing unit and forged milk procurement and payment records.

What does the remand report say?

1. Ajay Kumar had allegedly supplied monoglycerides, acetic acid and esters, chemicals used to make palm oil, to Bhole Baba Dairy directors Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain for nearly seven years.

2. The chemicals, imported from South Korea by a major distributor in Delhi, were purchased by Ajay Kumar in the name of his company and supplied to the dairy.

3. The ghee made using these chemicals was reportedly supplied to the TTD under the brand names Vaishtavi and AR Dairy.

4. More than 90 per cent of the ghee used in laddu preparation had been mixed with palm oil.

5. The promoters had set up a shell unit solely to supply spurious ghee worth Rs 250 crore to the TTD during the period.

6. Bhole Baba Dairy procured acetic acid ester worth Rs 7 crore from Ajay Sugandh between 2022 and 2024 alone.

7. YV Subba Reddy worked as Chairman, TTD from 2019 to 2023. While he was working as Chairman, TTD, on May 16, 2022, he handed over an anonymous complaint against Bhole Baba Oroganic Dairy Milk to RSSVR Subrahmanyam, GM Procurement, TTD at Tirumala for enquiry.

How did the adulteration continue?

In 2022, when RVSSR Subramanyam, then GM (P), met Subba Reddy, then Chairman, TTD, at the Chairman’s camp office, Tirumala, instructed to send the supply samples of cow ghee to the CFTRI Lab for testing purposes and appraise the result.

Test showed adulteration but supply was not stopped

Accordingly, ghee samples were drawn from the ghee tankers of Premier Agri Foods, Vyshnavi Dairy Specialities and Bhole Baba Oroganic Dairy Milk and from the tins supplied by Bhole Baba Oroganic Dairy Milk and forwarded to CFTRI, Mysore during June 2022.

The test reports of CFTRI received by TTD during August 2022 revealed that all the ghee samples were adulterated with vegetable oil as per the Beta Sitosterol test.

However, no action was taken against the said ghee suppliers, even after the former TTD chief was apprised about the said test results. Instead, Premier Agri Foods and Shree Vyshanavi Dairy Specialties were allowed to continue to supply ghee to TTD till 2024 and allowed Bhole Baba Oroganic Dairy Milk to continue supplying ghee till October 2022.

In 2022, Pomil Jain (A3), Director of Bhole Baba Oroganic Dairy Milk, Kailash Chand Mangla and PP Srinivasan met Subba Reddy at his camp office-cum-residence in Hyderabad.

Request to postpone the inspection of the manufacturing plant

During the meeting, Pomil Jain complained about the demand of Rs 25 per kg ghee by Kaduru Chinnappanna, PA to YV Subba Reddy, and requested the Chairman not to conduct an inspection of his plant within a year.

During the investigation, it was revealed that Premier Agri Foods was a supplier of ghee to TTD. Further, Kaduru Chinnappanna, PA to then Chairman TTD YV Subba Reddy, had received cash amounting to Rs 20 lakh (approx.) on different occasions near Patel Nagar, Metro Station, New Delhi, from Aman Gupta, who is a Hawala agent representing Premier Agri Foods.

Similarly, Kaduru Chinnappanna received Rs 30 lakh (approx.) in cash on different occasions at Delhi from Vijay Gupta, Manager representing Premier Agri Foods.