Tirupati Laddu Row: Dairy Sold 68-Lakh-Kg Fake Ghee Worth Rs 250 Crore For Five Years — Here's How

The Bhole Baba Organic Dairy sold 68 lakh kg of ghee worth Rs 250 crore for five years to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams trust for a period of five years, according to the Central Bureau of Investigation, which learned of this after nabbing the accused affiliated with the dairy.

The "ghee" being supplied to the trust under contract contained monodiglycerides and acetic acid ester, with this adulterated product being supplied in an official capacity from 2019-2024 by the dairy. This was unwittingly used to make the laddu prasadam for devotees who visited the temple.

The CBI placed accused Ajay Kumar Sugandh under arrest for the supply of these chemicals, according to a report from the Times of India.

These details were released to the public from a remand report it submitted to the Nellore court. The dairy was operated by promoters Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain and located in Bhagwanpur in Uttarakhand.

The CBI reported that the two had set up a fraudulent ghee making module and falsified official documents for milk procurement and payment records.

The dairy had been boycotted widely by 2022 but used other dairies like Vyshnavi Dairy (based in Tirupati), Mal Ganga (located in Uttar Pradesh) and AR Dairy Foods (in Tamil Nadu) to bid for contracts and continue supplying its adulterated ghee to the trust.

Four containers of ghee stocks containing animal fat were sold to the trust by Vyshnavi Dairy after the same stock was rejected by them in July 2024, when it was initially being sold by AR Dairy Foods.

A joint investigation by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and a Special Investigation Team revealed that the animal fat-containing ghee was not returned to AR Dairy Foods, instead ending up in a stone quarry near Vyshnavi Dairy's dairy plant.

In August 2024, Vyshnavi Dairy swapped out the labels on the truck, refined the quality and consistency of the fake ghee and sold it back to the trust.

This ensured that Bhole Baba Organic Dairy continued to have control over ghee supply to the Tirupati trust, often ensuring that their spurious product was successfully sold to the temple trustees.