(Image source from: Indianexpress.com)

A money trail amounting to Rs 50 lakh has been discovered related to fake ghee provided to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam for preparing the Srivari laddu, a special offering given to the many pilgrims, worshippers, and tourists who visit the renowned temple each year. Reports suggest that K Chinnappanna, who serves as a personal assistant to YV Subba Reddy, a Member of Parliament from the ruling YSR Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh and a former TTD Chairman, supposedly received this amount in cash from hawala agents associated with Premier Agri Foods Pvt Ltd based in Uttar Pradesh. Specifically, it is alleged that Chinnappanna obtained Rs 20 lakh from Aman Gupta, an agent from Delhi, and the remaining amount from Vijay Gupta, a senior executive at Premier Agri Foods. Both transactions reportedly took place near the Patel Nagar Metro Station in Delhi, according to sources.

Last year, a significant political and legal dispute arose after claims that the famous Tirupati laddus were made with ‘impure’ ghee, meaning ghee that contained animal fats.

The issue escalated to the Supreme Court, which minimized the concerns voiced by politicians regarding the scandal – referring specifically to public comments by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu – by firmly stating that politics should not interfere with religion. However, the court instructed a collaborative investigation involving officers from the CBI, state police, and food safety representatives. The investigation team's findings revealed multiple instances where four dairies supplying the ghee altered documents and prices to secure contracts. Investigators uncovered that 60.37 lakh kg of fake ghee, containing foreign substances, valued at Rs 240.8 crore, was delivered to the TTD. Notably, Bhole Baba Organic Dairy Milk Pvt Ltd was accused of combining palm oils and chemicals to create adulterated ghee at their facility in Roorke, some of which was sent to the temple through three other suppliers: Sri Vyshnavi Dairy Specialities provided tainted ghee worth Rs 133.12 crore, Malganga Milk & Agro Products Rs 73.18 crore, and AR Dairy Foods Rs 1.61 crore.

It was also noted that even after a 2022 report from the Mysuru-based Central Food Technological Research Institute confirmed the adulteration, supplies continued through 2024.

This raised significant concerns about possible official negligence and complicity, according to sources. Chandrababu Naidu publicly asserted that latters during the prior government, led by Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSCRP, had been made using ghee mixed with animal fat. This scandal emerged last year following a report from a lab in Gujarat indicating that samples of ghee obtained from a supplier in Tamil Nadu's Dindigul – later verified as AR Dairy – showed traces of fish oil, beef fat, and lard, which are all animal fats. The lab report also included a note about the possibility of "false positives." The kitchen at the Tirupati temple prepares about three lakh laddoos each day, using around 1,500 kg of ghee along with large quantities of cashew nuts, raisins, cardamom, gram flour, and sugar.