Uttarakhand firm behind adulterated ghee: SIT | Latest News India – DairyScoop

The ghee which was found to be adulterated with animal fat and supplied to Tirumala temple in Andhra Pradesh for making of sacred “laddu prasadam” last year was supplied by Uttarakhand-based firm which was earlier disqualified by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) in 2022, investigations by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)-led special investigation team (SIT) revealed.

In its remand report submitted to the local court in Tirupati on Sunday night following the arrest of four persons belong to three different dairy firms, the SIT authorities disclosed that it was Bhole Baba Organic Dairy Private Limited, based out of Roorkee in Uttarakhand, which had supplied the ghee to TTD in June 2014, routing it through Sri Vyshnavi Dairy Specialities Pvt Ltd at Punabaka in Tirupati district and A R Dairy, Dundigal, Chennai.

The arrested were: Pomil Jain and Bipin Jain, directors of Bhole Baba Dairy, Apurva Vinay Kant Chawda, CEO of Sri Vaishnavi Dairy and Raju Rajasekharan, the MD of AR Dairy. The remand report which surfaced on Wednesday, was seen by HT.

Tirupati additional superintendent of police J Venkat Rao, who is also the investigating officer of the SIT, said in the report that Bhole Baba Dairy had supplied ghee to TTD at the rate of ₹291, in the name of Sri Vaishnavi Dairy in 2019. While Vaishnavi Dairy bagged the tenders for supply of ghee to the TTD, the entire ghee was supplied by Bhole Baba Dairy, which not only bore all expenses for transport but also paid 2-3% commission to Vyshnavi Dairy. Accordingly, Vyshnavi Dairy supplied ghee in tankers as well as in tins to the TTD in 2020.

In 2022, Bhole Baba Dairy also bagged the contract for supply of ghee in tankers to TTD under national supplier category. During that time, some of the ghee tankers of Bhole Baba Dairy were rejected as the ghee supplied did not pass the tests conducted by the in-house Lab of TTD.

During June 2022, the TTD plant inspection committee visited Bhole Baba Dairy plant at Fatehpur and submitted a report stating that the company had not submitted the records and documents for procurement of cow milk, payment details to the vendors, quality reports and ghee production. “Further, the inspection committee found that ghee manufacturing practices are not satisfactory in the Bhole Baba Dairy and so, it was technically disqualified to supply ghee tankers and tins to TTD,” the remand report said.

The SIT investigations revealed that Pomil Jain and Bipin Jain had acquired shares in Sri Vyshnavi Dairy and became its directors on January 18, 2024. While Apurva Chavda was continued as chief executive officer of Sri Vyshnavi Dairy, his relative Sabbil Kalimulla Khan alias Sameer (A-8) was retained as Plant Executive Officer of Vyshnavi Dairy, and they were looking after the affairs on behalf of Pomil Jain and Bipin Jain.

Meanwhile, AR Dairy, which has been selling milk from its Alapatti Chilling Centre to Sri Vyshnavi Dairy since long, joined hands with Apurva Chavda and agreed to take part in the tendering process for supply of ghee to the TTD. Apurva Chavda assured that he would take care of supply of ghee from Bhole Baba Dairy and offered a commission of ₹2.75 to ₹3 per kg to Rajasekaran.

They took the help of one P P Srinivasan, who was a liaison between the ghee suppliers and the TTD and was uploading the tender documents. In May 2023, Apurva Chavda created mail ID in the name of AR Dairy by giving his credentials for the purpose of participating in TTD ghee tenders.

“Though AR Dairy doesn’t have the capacity to make the required quantity of ghee, it produced fabricated documents to the TTD,” the SIT report said, adding that the earnest money deposit (EMD) was transferred to AR Dairy from the Bhole Baba Dairy account.

Thus, the AR Dairy procured ghee from Sri Vyshnavi Dairy and supplied it to the TTD starting from June, 2024. And Sri Vyshnavi Dairy in turn procured ghee from Bhole Baba Dairy, the report said.

Following complaints from pilgrims about the poor quality of laddu, the TTD got the lab test for adulteration of ghee done with NDDB-CALF Lab, at Anand in Gujarat from the samples collected from the last four ghee tankers in July. The test reports showed ghee adulteration with vegetable and animal fats.

“The TTD returned four ghee tankers to AR Dairy on July 25, but all the four tankers were taken to Sri Vyshnavi Dairy without going to AR Dairy. It was found that the AR Dairy also raised invoice in the name of Sri Vyshnavi Dairy Specialities Private Limited for the said four tankers,” the report said.

As the adulteration of ghee used for Tirupati laddu created a nation-wide outrage, Pomil Jain and Bipin Jain resigned as directors of Sri Vaishnavi Dairy on September 1. “In their place, new directors Surendra Singh and Saurabh Kashyap were appointed as per the records of ROC, Chennai. Investigation revealed that these new directors were their vehicle drivers,” the SIT report said.