Rs 250-crore adulterated ghee sent to make Tirupati temple laddus from 2019 to 2024: SIT

SIT officials told The Indian Express that the adulterated ghee was allegedly supplied by Harsh Fresh Dairy products or Bhole Baba Organic Dairy Milk Pvt Ltd, and its subsidiaries — Vyshnavi Dairy Specialities Pvt Ltd, Malganga Milk and Agro Products Pvt Ltd, and AR Dairy Foods Pvt Ltd.

According to SIT officials, the adulteration was allegedly done at a plant in Bhagwanpur near Roorkee, Uttarakhand, by adding adulterants like palm oil, palm kernel oil and palmolein. These adulterants were mixed with “minimal quantity of ghee along with other chemicals including Beta-Carotene, Acetic Acid Ester, ghee flavor”, the SIT found.

Bhole Baba Diary directors Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain are among those who have been arrested in connection with the case.

The adulteration of the Tirupati temple’s laddu prasadam grabbed national attention after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said at a meeting of the NDA at Amaravati on September 18, 2024, “Even the Tirumala laddu was made with substandard ingredients… They used animal fat instead of ghee.”

From 2019 to 2023, the YSR Congress Party was in power in Andhra Pradesh.

The SIT probe has found that the main adulterant was plant-based ingredients. According to the SIT, the adulteration of prasadam had come to light in 2022, when the then Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) chairman YV Subba Reddy found, by sending samples for testing, that the ghee was adulterated. “However, Subba Reddy allowed the adulterated ghee to be supplied to TTD till 2024,” SIT officials said.

The tradition of the laddu prasadam of Lord Venkateswara is now more than 300 years old. The temple at Tirupati started offering the laddu as prasadam to devotees in 1715.

The prasadam is prepared in a special kitchen known as Potu by laddu makers who belong to a particular sect that has been doing this work for centuries. The laddu makers have to shave their heads, and they have to wear a single clean cloth while in the kitchen.

Andhra Pradesh Minister Nara Lokesh, son of CM Naidu, said on X, “The Supreme Court-appointed SIT has exposed the truth. The guilty will face full weight of law. This isn’t adulteration — it is a deliberate assault on the faith of Hindus, a desecration of our belief, and a crime against the soul of Bharat. Those who played with the sacred must pay the price. Om Namo Venkatesaya.”