Synthetic Ghee to the TTD

 Synthetic Ghee to the TTD

Based on investigations by a CBI-led Special Investigation Team (SIT), the primary firm identified for supplying adulterated or synthetic ghee to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) between 2019 and 2024 is Bhole Baba Organic Dairy (also referred to as Bhole Baba Dairy Industries) based in Uttarakhand. 

The Hindu

The Hindu

"Virtual" Manufacturing: The investigations revealed that Bhole Baba Organic Dairy, operated by Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain, supplied around 68 lakh kg of ghee valued at ₹250 crore without ever procuring milk or butter.

Adulteration Method: The "ghee" was found to be a mixture of palm oil, palm kernel oil, hydrogenated fats, and chemicals such as acetic acid esters, used to manipulate the fat quality tests.

Proxy Suppliers: After being blacklisted by TTD in 2022, the promoters continued to supply the spurious ghee by routing it through other firms, including:

Vyshnavi Dairy (Tirupati)

AR Dairy Foods (Tamil Nadu)

Mal Ganga Dairy (Uttar Pradesh)

Other Contractors: Investigations noted that other contractors, including Premier Agri Foods, Kriparam Diary, and Sri Parag Milk, were also involved in providing inferior quality ghee during that period. 

The SIT investigation found that these actions involved collusion with TTD staff and external experts to bypass quality control checks, the report states. 

TheWire.in

TheWire.in

Gujarat Factory Busted For Making Milk With Urea And DetergentOfficials uncovered a Gujarat facility mixing chemicals into milk and buttermilk, sparking concerns about long-term consumer exposure.

Written by:

Nikita Nikhil

Gujarat Factory Busted For Making Milk With Urea And Detergent

As per FSSAI, 1,370 litres of unsafe milk were destroyed on the spot. (Representative Photo: Unsplash)

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Producing milk is often seen as a simple, everyday operation, but investigators in Gujarat say a factory had been secretly preparing synthetic milk for nearly five years using a mix of chemicals instead of real dairy. On February 8, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) confirmed that a unit in Sabarkantha district was raided after officials received specific intelligence about adulterated milk being supplied to nearby towns and villages. During the raid, officers found that the so-called milk was being made by combining small amounts of genuine milk with urea and processed powders, raising serious safety concerns for consumers.

Also Read: "Urea In Milk, Detergent In Ice Cream": Raghav Chadha Calls Out Food Adulteration In India

How The Fake Milk Was Made

According to officials, workers at the unit mixed a range of substances to mimic the colour, thickness, and protein levels of real milk, reported Times of India. These included:

Detergent powder

Urea fertiliser

Caustic soda

Refined palm oil and refined soybean oil

Whey powder, skimmed milk powder, and premium SMP powder

Investigators said the factory used only about 300 litres of real milk to produce nearly 1,700 to 1,800 litres of imitation milk every day by adding these chemicals and powders. The mixture was then packed in pouches and distributed as milk and buttermilk across Sabarkantha and Mehsana districts.

CBI Finds Synthetic Ghee, No Beef Tallow, in Tirupati Laddu: Chandrababu Naidu Claim Debunked

Pavan Korada

Pavan Korada

27/Jan/2026

A lot was wrong with the Tirupati kitchen supplies system, but the sensational claims made in 2024 that seemed to be backed by science have been proved untrue.

CBI Finds Synthetic Ghee, No Beef Tallow, in Tirupati Laddu: Chandrababu Naidu Claim Debunked

Chandrababu Naidu. Representative image of laddus.

Kochi: Sixteen months after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu ignited a nationwide political and religious firestorm by alleging that the sacred Tirupati laddu had been desecrated with “animal fat” – specifically citing beef tallow and lard – the narrative has shifted from the slaughterhouse to the chemistry laboratory.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)-led Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted following Supreme Court intervention in October 2024, filed its final chargesheet on January 23, 2026, before the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Court in Nellore. The extensive document offers a forensic dismantling of the “beef tallow” theory that dominated headlines in late 2024.

While the investigation confirms a massive procurement scam and dangerous adulteration, it concludes that the contaminants were not the rendered fat of cows or pigs, but a sophisticated, industrial-scale cocktail of vegetable oils and laboratory esters designed to chemically mimic dairy parameters.

This finding fundamentally alters the complexion of a controversy that Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan had originally framed as an assault on Sanatana Dharma, and which the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) now claims was a weaponised lie used to target the previous Jagan Mohan Reddy administration.

The ‘milkless’ dairy and the virtual factory

The chargesheet’s most damning revelation concerns the primary supplier, Bhole Baba Organic Dairy, based in Bhagwanpur, Uttarakhand. Contrary to initial fears of a dairy supply chain contaminated by animal byproducts, the SIT found that Bhole Baba operated what investigators have termed a “virtual” manufacturing unit.

The probe revealed that the dairy procured zero litres of milk and processed zero kilograms of butter at its facility. Yet, between 2019 and 2024, it managed to supply a staggering 68 lakh kilograms of “ghee” to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), valued at approximately Rs 250 crore. The “ghee” was, in reality, a synthetic product manufactured without a drop of milk.

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Esters, not tallow

In September 2024, The Wire had reported that the “S-value” deviations in the initial NDDB CALF report indicated the presence of “foreign fats” but were scientifically inconclusive regarding their specific origin, despite the Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP) insistence on beef tallow.

The SIT’s final chemical analysis, supported by experts from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), has now identified the specific method used to defeat the TTD’s quality control protocols. The temple’s testing relied heavily on Reichert-Meissl (RM) values – a standard measure of purity with a range of 24 to 28 – to verify ghee. To hack this test, the syndicate utilised a base of palm oil, palm kernel oil, and palmolein sourced from Budge Budge Co. Ltd. in Kolkata.

To this vegetable base, the chargesheet details the addition of Acetic Acid Esters, supplied specifically by a Delhi-based trader named Ajay Kumar Sugandh (Accused No. 16). These esters were used to artificially spike the RM value, creating a “false positive” for pure ghee in standard lab tests. The syndicate also added Beta Carotene to replicate the golden-yellow colour of cow ghee and artificial flavouring to mimic the aroma of “danedar” (granular) ghee. The chargesheet explicitly states that the “S-value” deviations (cited by Naidu in 2024) were caused by these vegetable oils and chemical esters, not by the presence of animal tissue.

The ‘recycling’ operation and insider collusion

While the “animal fat” claim has been ruled out, the chargesheet details an instance of hygiene violation that paints a grim picture of the TTD’s internal rot. The SIT uncovered a “recycling” operation that took place in July 2024. When TTD officials rejected four tankers of ghee for quality issues, the syndicate did not discard the load. Instead, the tankers were diverted to a stone-crushing unit near Vyshnavi Dairy. There, the sludge was “re-refined,” its flavour profile adjusted, re-labelled with fresh dates, and successfully re-supplied to the temple in August 2024.

The investigation has widened the net beyond the suppliers, implicating 36 individuals in a conspiracy that bridged private enterprise and temple bureaucracy. Key among the accused is RSSVR Subrahmanyam, the former General Manager (Procurement) at TTD, who is accused of knowingly approving tenders from a blacklisted entity. Also named is Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, an external dairy expert who allegedly provided “favourable inspection reports” certifying Bhole Baba’s production capabilities, despite the facility lacking milk processing infrastructure.

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The chargesheet further implicates Chinna Appanna, a former aide to the TTD Chairman, and the directors of Bhole Baba, Pomil and Vipin Jain. The investigation alleges that after Bhole Baba was blacklisted in 2022, the Jains routed the same synthetic ghee through Vyshnavi Dairy (Tirupati), run by Apoorva Vinay Kant Chawda, and AR Dairy (Tamil Nadu), run by Raju Rajasekharan, to bypass procurement restrictions.

Vindication and the ‘dharma’ pivot

The release of the chargesheet has triggered an immediate political reaction in Andhra Pradesh. For the opposition YSRCP, the absence of beef tallow is a moment of political vindication.

Speaking to The Wire after the chargesheet was filed, the YSRCP spokesperson said that “Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has been thoroughly exposed… (and) the chargesheet clearly stated that there was no animal fat in the Tirumala laddu prasadam… proving beyond doubt that Chandrababu Naidu’s allegations were politically motivated.” The party further accused the current coalition government of negligence, citing recent incidents such as “rodents freely roaming near the Annavaram prasadam counters” as proof of hollow concern for sanctity.

Conversely, the ruling TDP has pivoted its narrative from “sacrilege by beef” to “sacrilege by fraud.” In an official statement, the party argued that the “zero milk” finding proved the “criminal negligence and spiritual bankruptcy” of the previous regime. “The world laughed when we spoke of ‘animal fat’ in 2024. Today, the science proves the ghee was a chemical sludge. This is not just fraud; it is a sin,” a TDP spokesperson stated, highlighting the arrest of TTD officials as proof that the “syndicate” operated from within the administration.

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Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, whose 11-day Praschit Deeksha (penance) was the emotional centrepiece of the controversy, has doubled down. Kalyan argued this week that the industrial scale of the fraud (68 lakh kgs) validates his demand for a “Sanatana Dharma Rakshana Board.” He specifically cited the collusion of political appointees like Chinna Appanna to argue that secular bodies like the FSSAI treat the laddu as a mere “food product,” and that temples must be freed from government control—a stance that continues to challenge the secular legacy of the 1987 Endowments Act.

The SIT chargesheet has effectively closed the file on the “beef tallow” conspiracy theory. There was no rendering of animal fat. However, it has opened a new, perhaps more damaging chapter on a Rs 250-crore synthetic adulteration racket that flourished through the collusion of private dairies and the very temple bureaucrats sworn to protect the deity’s offerings.al

What Officers Found During The Raid

The Local Crime Branch, along with food safety officials, raided the facility named Shree Satya Dairy Products near Salal village in Prantij. As per CNBC TV 18, inside the unit, authorities seized:

Around 1,962 litres of adulterated milk

Over 1,100 litres of adulterated buttermilk

Nearly ₹71 lakh worth of raw materials and chemicals

The factory was immediately sealed, and samples were sent for laboratory testing to determine the full extent of contamination.

As per the video shared by the FSSAI on X, 1,370 litres of unsafe milk were destroyed on the spot during the operation, and consumers were urged to stay alert and report suspicious dairy products.