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| Photo Credit: The Hindu
Eyebrows are being raised in the political and bureaucratic circles over certain startling facts that have tumbled out of the Central Bureau of Investigation-led (CBI) SIT’s charge sheet in the controversial ghee adulteration case.
Even as the government is maintaining that certain new players started supplying adulterated ghee to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) after the ‘relaxation’ of the guidelines during the YSR Congress regime, it has been found that Harsh Fresh Dairy, a proxy of the Bhole Baba Dairy and named as an accused, had supplied adulterated ghee to the TTD even in February 2019, when the TDP-led NDA was in power.
The CBI’s report mentions that the Uttarakhand-based Harsh Fresh Dairy had created fake documentation trail and inspection reports by colluding not only with the lower staff in the TTD’s procurement wing, but also with the external dairy experts assigned by the TTD to inspect their premises.
By offering to supply ghee at ₹291 per kg, the company emerged as the L1 and got its first contract to supply ghee in tins to the TTD way back in February 2019.
Though the contract was awarded to supply 82,000 kg, the dairy was alleged to have supplied a mixture of palm oil, palm kernel oil mixed with chemicals at that time.
Similarly, Premier Agri Foods, based in Bareilly of Uttar Pradesh, which has been supplying ghee to the TTD since 2013, is also accused by the CBI of similar charges.
“While the fact is that these companies have been supplying adulterated ghee to the TTD even during the erstwhile TDP regime, the same party is now trying to hoodwink the public that the adulterated ghee supply started only after relaxation of rules during the YSRCP regime (2019-2024). The CBI report has completely negated the ruling party’s view”, observes TTD’s former chairman and YSRCP district president Bhumana Karunakar Reddy.
“After getting disqualified during the YSRCP regime, Bhole Baba Dairy chose its proxies to route the adulterated ghee once again into the TTD,” the CBI probe has unearthed.
The four tankers of ghee, which were found by the NDDB as adulterated, also found their way into the TTD through the proxy dairies in July-Aug 2024, immediately after the TDP came to power again.
“Though the procurement rules were tightened in 2023, the proxies continued to supply ghee to the TTD through connivance with the departmental staff,” the charge sheet has noted, indicating that the party in power hardly mattered for the colluding parties.
However, the TTD’s trust board member G. Bhanuprakash Reddy says the temple kitchen workers engaged in Laddu production complained about the odour emanating from the ‘ghee’, which was brushed aside by the then trust board. Similarly, he wants the probe to get deeper to find the ‘key beneficiaries’ behind Chinna Appanna, the former PA of the TTD’s ex-chairman Y.V. Subba Reddy. The charge sheet has indeed found kickbacks transferred into Appanna’s account, but Mr. Bhanuprakash wants the ‘extended trail’ to be exposed.
“When the report has mention of Hawala transactions, it is time for the Enforcement Directorate to take over and delve deep into the case,” he adds.
Published – February 03, 2026 04:49 pm IST
