Tirupati laddoo row: How Uttarakhand-based Bhole Baba dairy supplied ghee worth Rs 250 crore without a drop of milk

In a significant revelation with regard to the adulterated ghee used to make the ladoo offering at the Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple in Tirumala, a Uttarakhand-based dairy was said to have supplied 68 lakh kilograms of ghee to the temple, without procuring milk from any source. The dairy is said to have supplied ghee worth Rs 250 crore in this regard.

The CBI received the details of the fraud following the arrest of Ajay Kumar Sugandh,  who supplied various chemicals such as monodiglycerides and acetic acid ester to Bhole  Baba Organic Dairy. The dairy, operated by its promoters, Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain, won the contract from the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam in 2019, and the practice continued till 2024, according to a report by The Times of India.

The company was disqualified and blacklisted in 2022, yet continued to supply fake ghee  to the TTD by successfully bidding for contracts through other dairies, including Tirupati-based Vaishnavi Dairy, Uttar Pradesh-based Mal Ganga, and Tamil Nadu-based AR Dairy Foods.

It was in September 2024 that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Nair revealed that the previous Jagan Mohan Reddy government allowed the use of adulterated ghee to make the prasad in the temple. Tests revealed the ghee may have contained beef tallow, fish oil, and pig lard.

An investigation was launched, following which it was revealed that the adulterated ghee was being supplied by AR Dairy and Vaishanavy Dairy.

The probe report said four tankers of ghee supplied by AR Dairy were found to be adulterated with animal fat. The tankers were rejected by the Tirupati trust in July last  year, but the Bhole Baba Dairy diverted these tankers to Vyshanavi Dairy, where the labels were changed and reprocessed, and sent back.