CBI stated the dairy promoters set up a fake ghee manufacturing unit and forged milk procurement and payment records
TIRUPATI: The dairy in Uttarakhand never procured a drop of milk or butter from anywhere, yet managed to supply 68 lakh kg of ghee worth Rs 250 crore to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which runs the famous Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh, between 2019 and 2024, the CBI probe into the laddu ghee adulteration has revealed. The CBI-led special investigation team (SIT) gathered these shocking details following the arrest of accused Ajay Kumar Sugandh, who supplied various chemicals like monodiglycerides and acetic acid ester to Bhole Baba Organic dairy, contracted by the TTD to supply ghee to be used in the preparation of laddu prasadam. The SIT made these revelations in its remand report submitted to a Nellore court. The dairy is run by its promoters Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain at Bhagawanpur in Uttarakhand. According to CBI, the promoters set up a fake desi ghee manufacturing unit and forged milk procurement and payment records. While Bhole Baba dairy got disqualified and blacklisted in 2022, they continued to supply spurious ghee to the TTD by successfully bidding for contracts through other dairies, including Tirupati-based Vyshnavi dairy, UP-based Mal Ganga and Tamil Nadu-based AR Dairy Foods. The CBI probe has also revealed 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 by Bhole Baba dairy promoters through Vyshnavi dairy. During the investigation, when FSSAI officials and the SIT team inspected the AR dairy plant at Dindigul, it emerged that the four ghee tankers never returned to the AR dairy plant but were diverted to a local stone crushing unit located close to Vyshnavi dairy plant. And in Aug, Vyshnavi dairy, which was still a ghee supplier to the TTD within the Andhra Pradesh circle category, changed the labels on the trucks, improved upon the quality and consistency of the synthetic ghee, and supplied back the same rejected ghee to the Tirupati trust in August 2024, according to CBI. And the same ghee was subsequently used in the preparation of the sacred Tirupati Laddu prasadams.
