Tirupati: The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) has arrested a serving official of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) in the Laddu prasadam ghee adulteration case.
The SIT, led by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), arrested senior TTD Engineering Department official RSSVR Subrahmanyam in connection with the TTD laddu-ghee adulteration case.
Subrahmanyam had earlier served as the General Manager (Procurement) at TTD and was responsible for procuring key materials, including the ghee used for preparing laddus, said Sarvasresti Tripathi, a member of SIT and Guntur Range IG.
The SIT produced him before the ACB Court, which remanded him in judicial custody for 15 days.
He is the 29th accused in the case. With his arrest, a total of nine people have been held so far. He is the first serving TTD official to be arrested.
Subramanyam was part of the technical team inspecting ghee manufacturing units. He had allegedly inspected units and issued quality certificates in exchange for bribes from private suppliers.
The SIT arrested him based on the statements of some accused. These statements established the nexus between TTD’s marketing wing and private dairy owners.
The SIT recently questioned former TTD chairman and YSR Congress Parliamentary Party leader YV Subba Reddy, during whose tenure adulterated ghee was allegedly used for making laddus.
The SIT also grilled former TTD executive officer A. V. Dharma Reddy on lapses during his tenure in the procurement of ghee, verification of suppliers, and quality control measures.
He was reportedly questioned on how Bhole Baba Dairy, blacklisted by TTD in 2022, allegedly continued supplying ghee through proxy firms.
The SIT reportedly found that between 2019 and 2024, around 20 crore laddus were made using adulterated ghee.
Out of the total 48.76 crore laddus produced during this period, nearly 40 per cent were found to contain palm oil, palm kernel oil, and other chemical additives.
The SIT recently arrested one Ajay Kumar Sugandh, who supplied various chemicals to Bhole Baba Dairy.
The investigation by SIT revealed that Bhole Baba Organic Dairy of Uttarakhand never procured a single drop of milk or butter from anywhere, yet managed to supply 68 lakh kgs of ghee to the TTD between 2019 and 2024 through its proxies, including Nellore-based Vyshnavi Dairy, Maharashtra-based Mal Ganga Dairy and Tamil Nadu-based AR Dairy.
The promoters of Bhole Baba Dairy allegedly established a full-fledged fake desi ghee manufacturing unit and supplied 68 lakh kg spurious ghee, valued at Rs 250 crore, to TTD for use in preparing laddu prasadam.
The SIT last month arrested K Chinna Appanna, a close aide of Subba Reddy.
Appanna, who served as Subba Reddy’s personal assistant from 2014 to 2024, allegedly played a key role in awarding contracts to ineligible dairies.
The alleged laddu scam came to light after the Telugu Desam Party-led coalition came to power in June 2024. In September, the state government constituted an SIT headed by Inspector General Sarvashreshta Tripathi to probe into the case.
However, on the petitions challenging the constitution of the SIT by the state government, the Supreme Court in October 2024 ordered the creation of a new, independent five-member SIT, replacing the state-appointed SIT.
The SC-appointed SIT consists of two CBI officers, two senior police officers from Andhra Pradesh, and one official from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
(IANS)
