68L 'fake ghee' worth ₹250cr supplied to Tirupati, CBI finds
What's the story
A dairy in Uttarakhand, Bhole Baba Organic Dairy, allegedly duped the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) of ₹250 crore by supplying 68 lakh kilograms of fake ghee between 2019 and 2024. The CBI-led Special Investigation Team (SIT) uncovered a complex adulteration scheme where no real milk or butter was procured. Instead, palm oil, palm kernel oil, and hydrogenated fats along with beta-carotene and "ghee essence," were used to produce the counterfeit ghee.
Adulteration methods
Chemical tricks used to pass quality tests
To pass TTD's quality tests, the dairy allegedly employed chemical tricks like acetic-acid esters to artificially increase the RM value of their synthetic product. Despite being blacklisted by TTD in 2022, Bhole Baba continued supplying fake ghee through proxies such as Vyshnavi Dairy (Andhra Pradesh), Mal Ganga Dairy (Uttar Pradesh), and AR Dairy Foods (Tamil Nadu). Documents and invoices were forged to mask the product's origin.
Dairy network
Containers of rejected ghee diverted to local stone crushing unit
In one shocking incident, four containers of ghee contaminated with animal fat, originally supplied by AR Dairy and rejected by the TTD in July 2024, were discovered to have re-entered the system. These containers were diverted to a local stone crushing unit near Vyshnavi's plant. In August 2024, Vyshnavi Dairy relabeled and improved the quality of the rejected ghee before supplying it back to TTD. This same ghee was then used to prepare sacred Tirupati Laddu prasadams, per CBI.
Prasadam scandal
Arrest of supplier
The breakthrough came after the arrest of supplier Ajay Kumar Sugandh, who supplied the dairy with chemicals like monodiglycerides and acetic acid ester. "The dairy never procured...milk or butter, yet created fake procurement and payment records to project large-scale ghee production," investigators said. This scandal erupted last year after the Andhra Pradesh government released a report from a Gujarat lab claiming samples of ghee purchased from a supplier in Tamil Nadu's Dindigul contained fish oil, cattle tallow and lard.