Chennai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has uncovered a massive scam involving the supply of adulterated ghee worth around ₹250 crore to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which uses the ghee to prepare its world-famous Tirupati laddus.
According to the CBI probe, Bhole Baba Organic Dairy, based in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, supplied nearly 68 lakh kilograms of spurious ghee to the temple trust between 2019 and 2024. Investigators allege that the dairy’s promoters, Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain, set up a fake desi ghee manufacturing unit and forged milk procurement records to pass off substandard material as pure ghee.
The scam came to light after the arrest of Ajay Kumar Sugandh, one of the accused, who revealed that despite being blacklisted by the TTD in 2022, Bhole Baba Dairy continued to route supplies through proxy firms. These included Vyshnavi Dairy in Tirupati, Mal Ganga Dairy in Uttar Pradesh, and AR Dairy Foods in Tamil Nadu.
The CBI report states that four tanker loads of adulterated ghee, initially rejected by TTD after being supplied through AR Dairy, were reprocessed and relabelled by Bhole Baba before being resupplied via Vyshnavi Dairy. Investigators found that these rejected stocks were never returned to AR Dairy’s Dindigul plant, as claimed, but diverted to a stone-crushing unit near Vyshnavi’s premises.
Officials said the scale of the fraud — both in volume and duration — has shocked the temple administration. The TTD, which manages one of the world’s richest and most visited temples, uses huge quantities of ghee daily to make its signature laddus offered as prasadam to lakhs of devotees.
The CBI has filed its remand report before the Nellore court and is continuing its probe into how a blacklisted firm managed to continue supplies through front companies. The agency is also examining lapses in quality testing and procurement oversight that allowed adulterated ghee to be accepted.
Authorities indicated that more arrests and charges are likely as the investigation widens, with the case exposing serious gaps in the temple trust’s supply-chain vigilance.
