How Rs2.5 billion Tirupati laddu scam shook faith in India’s wealthiest temple

Dubai: For centuries, the golden-brown Srivari laddu from the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) temple has symbolised purity, faith and divine blessing.

Devotees from around the world carry it home as sacred prasadam, believing that a bite carries the deity’s grace itself.

But between 2019 and 2024, investigators say, that belief was betrayed — with industrial chemicals, palm oil and even traces of animal fat sneaking into the sanctified kitchen of India’s holiest shrine.

The holy ghee that wasn’t

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has now laid bare what it calls one of the biggest religious food scandals in the country’s history — a Rs250-crore (Rs2.5 billion) fraud involving fake desi ghee (clarified butter) used to prepare the temple’s laddus.

World’s richest temple

• Temple: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), Andhra Pradesh

• Deity: Lord Venkateswara, revered as the “Lord of Seven Hills.”

• Wealth: Estimated at over R2.5 lakh crore ($30 billion) — in gold, fixed deposits, and assets.

• Donations: Devotees contribute an average of Rs6–8 crore daily, often in cash, jewellery, or gold.

• Gold Reserves: More than 10 tonnes of gold are deposited in banks under the temple’s name.

• Visitors: Over 60,000 to 80,000 pilgrims visit each day — numbers that swell during festivals.

• Annual budget: Surpasses Rs4,000 crore (Rs40 billion), larger than the GDP of some small nations.

• Significance: Considered both the world’s richest and most visited place of worship, symbolising devotion, wealth, and faith in divine providence.

According to Indian media reports, citing the CBI-led Special Investigation Team (SIT), an Uttarakhand-based firm, Bhole Baba Organic Dairy, managed to supply 6.8 million kilos of ghee to the temple trust — despite not procuring a single drop of milk or butter.

Investigators found that Bhole Baba’s “factory” in Bhagawanpur, Uttarakhand, was little more than a shell operation — with falsified ledgers of milk purchases and payments. The ghee, they allege, was nothing but a chemical blend of palm oil, monodiglycerides, and acetic acid ester, masked with colour and aroma.

Blacklisted, yet still inside the temple kitchen

The SIT’s remand report, filed in a Nellore court, reveals how the dairy’s promoters, Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain, kept the supply lines open even after being blacklisted by TTD in 2022.

They allegedly floated proxy firms — including Tirupati-based Vyshnavi Dairy, Uttar Pradesh’s Mal Ganga Dairy and Tamil Nadu’s AR Dairy Foods — to keep winning tenders and sending adulterated ghee into the temple’s kitchens.

How the Tirupati laddu ghee scam worked

• 1. Fake dairy, real profits

• Bhole Baba Organic Dairy in Uttarakhand, which never procured milk or butter, was awarded contracts to supply desi ghee to TTD.

• Between 2019 and 2024, it supplied 6.8 million kg of ghee worth ₹250 crore — all with forged records.

• 2. Chemical cocktail instead of ghee

• Industrial additives like palm oil, monodiglycerides, and acetic acid ester replaced pure cow ghee.

• Some samples later tested positive for animal fat, fish oil, and lard.

• 3. Blacklisted, yet back inside

• After being blacklisted in 2022, Bhole Baba’s promoters used proxy dairies — including Vyshnavi Dairy (Tirupati), Mal Ganga Dairy (U.P.), and AR Dairy (Tamil Nadu) — to continue supplies.

• Rejected ghee was rebranded and resupplied through these firms.

• 4. Hawala links and political shadows

• CBI found a Rs50 lakh money trail allegedly routed through hawala channels to K. Chinnappanna, aide to former TTD chairman Y.V. Subba Reddy.

• Investigators suspect kickbacks for contract approvals.

• 5. Alarms ignored

• Despite a 2022 CFTRI lab report confirming adulteration, TTD continued buying ghee till 2024.

• Officials allegedly overlooked red flags and failed to verify supplier credentials.

• 6. Faith shaken, probe deepens

• SIT appointed by the Supreme Court is now probing the nexus of dairies, officials, and middlemen.

• More arrests are expected as investigators chase the money trail and procurement records.

In one startling instance, four tankers of ghee rejected by TTD in July 2024 for being substandard were quietly resupplied through Vyshnavi Dairy. When FSSAI and SIT officials later inspected the AR Dairy plant in Dindigul, they discovered that the tankers never returned there at all — instead diverted to a stone-crushing unit, where they were reportedly “reprocessed” and relabeled before being sent back to the temple.

Money, politics, and faith

As investigators dug deeper, the trail led to political circles.

A Rs5 million hawala transaction has reportedly been unearthed linking K. Chinnappanna, the personal assistant to Y.V. Subba Reddy — YSR Congress MP and former TTD Chairman.

Sources allege Chinnappanna took cash payments from Delhi-based hawala agents connected to Premier Agri Foods Pvt Ltd, one of the dairy intermediaries.

The SIT believes these funds were kickbacks tied to contract awards. Chinnappanna was arrested last month; Reddy himself has now been summoned for questioning.

Temple officials under the scanner

On Wednesday, former TTD Executive Officer A.V. Dharma Reddy appeared before the SIT for the second consecutive day, questioned for nearly nine hours over alleged lapses in supplier verification and quality checks during his tenure.

The SIT — a five-member team appointed by the Supreme Court, including two CBI officers and one official from the Food Safety Authority of India — says 68 lakh kg of adulterated ghee worth Rs250 crore reached the temple between 2019 and 2024.

Alarmingly, this was despite a 2022 report from the Mysuru-based Central Food Technological Research Institute confirming adulteration. Supplies continued for two more years, raising questions of official complicity and negligence.

A sacred kitchen, a broken trust

The Tirumala kitchen, known as the Potu, is among the world’s largest religious kitchens — producing around 300,000 laddus daily using 1,500 kg of ghee, tonnes of sugar and precious dry fruits. The laddus, which hold a Geographical Indication (GI) tag, are not just temple offerings — they are symbols of faith and purity carried by pilgrims across 150 nations.

Why the Tirupati Laddu is world-famous

• Sacred offering: The Tirupati Laddu, also called Srivari Laddu, is the prasadam (holy offering) given to devotees at the Tirumala temple, dedicated to Lord Venkateswara.

• Ancient legacy: Introduced in 1715, the laddu has been prepared for over 300 years inside the temple’s kitchen — the world’s largest religious kitchen.

• Massive scale: Around 3 lakh laddus are made daily using ghee, gram flour, sugar, cashews, and raisins — all considered pure and sacred.

• Trademark protected: In 2009, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) obtained a Geographical Indication (GI) tag, making it the first prasadam in India to be legally protected against imitation.

• Global devotion: Pilgrims from over 150 countries carry the laddus home as tokens of divine blessing — often gifted at weddings, festivals, and ceremonies.

• Symbol of faith and purity: For millions, the laddu embodies divine grace — any controversy over its ingredients or purity instantly strikes at religious sentiment.

That’s why the scandal cut deep. When a Gujarat lab found traces of fish oil, beef tallow and lard in samples of ghee from a Tamil Nadu supplier in 2024, outrage spread across Andhra Pradesh and beyond. Political leaders waded in, with N. Chandrababu Naidu accusing the previous Jagan Mohan Reddy government of overseeing “impure offerings.”

The Supreme Court later rebuked attempts to politicise the issue, but the damage was done. Faith, once shaken, is not easily restored.

The investigation continues

The SIT is now tracing a vast web of forged tenders, proxy dairies, and financial conduits that allegedly laundered hundreds of crores in adulterated ghee contracts.

With more arrests expected and top officials under scrutiny, what began as a question of food purity has turned into a test of institutional integrity at one of India’s most revered temples.