Rs 250 crore, 5 years: How a fake dairy duped Tirupati, provided 68,00,000 kg fake ghee

A dairy in Uttarakhand that never procured a drop of milk or butter from anywhere, delivered 68 lakh kg of ghee to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) that runs the Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh, at the cost of Rs 250 crore over a period of five years. This unbelievable scam is now under CBI probe following the revelation of adulteration in the laddu ghee.

According to a report in Times of India, the scam ran for five years, from 2019 to 2024. The CBI is now leading a special investigation team (SIT), following the arrest of accused Ajay Kumar Sugandh who supplied various chemicals like monodiglycerides and acetic acid ester to Bhole Baba Organic dairy, which is under probe. 

The dairy was contacted by the TTD for the supply of ghee to be used in the preparation of laddu prasadam. As per the SIT’s remand report submitted to a Nellore court, the dairy is run by Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain at Bhagawanpur in Uttarakhand. 

As per the CBI, the promoters set up a fake ghee manufacturing unit and forged milk procurement as well as payment records. The dairy even got blacklisted in 2022 but continued to supply ghee to TTD by successfully bidding for contracts through other dairies. It used Tirupati-based Vyshnavi dairy, UP-based Mal Ganga and Tamil Nadu-based AR Dairy Foods to bid for the contracts.

In fact, the probe also revealed that the TTD had last year rejected four containers of ghee stocks adulterated with animal fat that were allegedly supplied by AR dairy. The same stock was supplied back to TTD by Bhole Baba Dairy through Vyshnavi dairy.

It was found upon investigation by FSSAI officials and the SIT that the ghee tankers never made it back to AR dairy but were delivered to a local stone crushing unit close to Vyshnavi dairy plant. Vyshnavi dairy then changed the labels on the trucks, improved upon quality and consistency of the synthetic ghee and supplied it back to Tirupati in August 2024.

As per the CBI, the same ghee was then used in the preparation of the sacred laddu prasadams.