Tirupati Ghee Adulteration Case Ed Seizes 60 Lakh Cash In Searches

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday conducted searches at 15 locations in several states, including Mumbai and Ahilyanagar in Maharashtra, as part of its money-laundering investigation linked to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) ghee adulteration case.

Cash worth ₹60 lakh was seized during the search operations, officials said. Investigators also learned that the proceeds of crime had been invested in properties valued at above ₹45 crore, as well as in several immovable properties held in the names of accused persons and their family members.

The agency also seized various incriminating documents indicating the use of an alleged complex network of legal entities to facilitate bogus sale and purchase transactions for the concealment and layering of proceeds of crime, officials said.

The search operations covered the premises of dairy companies such as Malganga Milk & Agro Products Pvt Ltd in Ahilyanagar, AR Dairy Food Pvt Ltd in Dindigul (Tamil Nadu), and Bhole Baba Organic Dairy Milk Pvt Ltd in Roorkee (Uttarakhand), apart from other premises belonging to suspect entities and individuals in Mumbai, Bikaner (Rajasthan), Dehradun (Uttarakhand), Delhi, and Guntur (Andhra Pradesh).

The searches covered the residential and office premises of individuals identified as Machindra Lanke, Pomil Jain, Vipin Jain, Raju Rajasekaran, Rajesh Mansukhlal Chavda, Apurva Vinaykanth Chavda, Ajay Kumar Sugandh, Mahesh Kumar Rohira and Ashish Agarwal, officials said.

The TTD is a trust set up by the Andhra Pradesh government that primarily oversees the operations and finances of the Venkateswara Temple in Tirumala, Tirupati district. In September 2024, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu had alleged that animal fat was used to prepare the famed Tirumala laddu during the previous regime in the state.

A charge sheet submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation-led special investigation team to the Andhra Pradesh High Court in January this year alleged that adulterated ghee was supplied to the trust between 2019 and 2024. The ghee was allegedly not made from cow milk but artificially produced using palm kernel oil, palm oil, and palm stearin.

The ED initiated its investigation based on a case registered against AR Dairy Food Pvt Ltd and others, wherein it was alleged that the accused persons, in conspiracy with certain TTD officials, committed criminal breach of trust, cheating, and caused wrongful loss to the trust by supplying adulterated ghee.

The agency’s investigation so far has revealed that the proceeds of crime generated through the supply of adulterated ghee to TTD were subsequently invested in immovable properties through a complex web of interconnected legal entities and business concerns, officials said.