Blacklisted firm supplied adulterated ghee to Tirupati temple via proxies: report
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Hyderabad: A Special Investigation Team found that a disqualified and blacklisted firm used proxies to supply adulterated ghee to the Lord Venkateswara Temple, The Indian Express reported.
The remand report by the team filed before a local court in connection with the Tirupati laddu ‘adulteration’ case states that Bhole Baba Organic Dairy Pvt Ltd allegedly supplied ghee via its proxies – Vaishnavi Dairy and AR Dairy.
Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which manages the temple where it uses 15,000 kilograms of ghee to prepare the famous laddu prasadam, blacklisted the firm in 2022.
Bhole Baba Dairy, according to the remand report, supplied ghee to the TTD at Rs 291 per kg in 2019 through 2022, when the TTD concluded after an inspection at the dairy’s facilities that manufacturing practices were ‘not satisfactory’ and disqualified the firm from the tender processes.
The team on Sunday filed the remand report against the accused including Pomil Jain and Bipin Jain, former directors of Bhole Baba Dairy in Roorkee; Apurva Vinay Kant Chawda, CEO of Vaishnavi Dairy, Poonambakkam; and Raju Rajasekharan, the MD of AR Dairy, Dindigul.
Vaishnavi Dairy won a tender in 2020 to supply ghee while AR Dairy allegedly fabricated documents to get tender in March 2024, eventually leading to TTD keep buying ghee from the proxies, according to the remand report.
Bhole Baba Dairy is reported to have helped proxies with tender process including fabricating documents for the bid.
The remand report further said that AR Dairy, supposed to manufacture and supply ghee, procured it from Vaishnavi Dairy, which in turn procured ghee from Bhole Baba Dairy.
Where it should have delivered Agmark standard ghee, AR Dairy fabricated documents and allegedly supplied adulterated ghee.
The controversy over adulteration sent shockwaves after the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government claimed last year that prasadam, offered to devotees at Lord Venkateswara Temple, was adulterated with animal fat.
Subsequently, a five-member team, made up by two CBI officers, two from the Andhra Pradesh government and one from the Food Safety Standards Authority of India, started probing the case.