🧈 THE UNHOLY OFFERING
It’s a scandal so staggering, it almost defies belief. For five long years, devotees of Lord Venkateswara at the tirumala tirupati temple — millions who queued for hours for a glimpse of the divine and a taste of the holy laddu — were served faith laced with fraud.
A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)-led Special Investigation Team (SIT) has unearthed one of India’s most shocking food adulteration scams: a Uttarakhand-based dairy that never bought milk or butter, yet supplied 68 lakh kilograms of fake ghee worth ₹250 crore to the tirumala tirupati Devasthanam (TTD).
What’s worse? Investigators say the “ghee” wasn’t ghee at all — it was an oily cocktail allegedly mixed with animal fat and industrial chemicals, disguised to pass quality tests. And this wasn’t just about money — it was about the betrayal of faith at the very heart of one of Hinduism’s holiest shrines.
🏭 THE GREAT DAIRY DECEPTION
The operation, according to the SIT, was deceptively simple. Promoters Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain, who ran the so-called dairy in Uttarakhand, created an elaborate web of falsified documents — fake milk procurement receipts, forged supplier ledgers, and doctored test results.
But here’s the kicker: the dairy never procured a single drop of milk or butter.
Yet, from 2019 to 2024, they managed to ship 68 lakh kilograms of adulterated “ghee” — much of which ended up in the hallowed kitchens of the tirupati temple, used to prepare the world-famous Tirupati Laddu prasadams.
💀 THE FAT THAT FAILED GOD
The SIT’s investigation unearthed something far more sinister than mere fraud.
In July 2024, four containers of ghee adulterated with animal fat, initially rejected by ttd after lab tests, were later diverted and reintroduced into the supply chain through Vyshnavi Dairy — and used in prasadam preparation.
What this means: offerings that millions of devotees consumed as sacred, vegetarian prasad were allegedly tainted with animal fat.
For a temple where purity and vegetarian sanctity are non-negotiable, this revelation has hit with the force of blasphemy.
💰 THE economics OF FAITH
The scale of this scam is mind-numbing.
Over five years, the fraudulent dairies allegedly funneled ₹250 crore worth of spurious ghee into TTD’s supply chain — enough to fill 27 Olympic swimming pools with adulterated fat.
And despite repeated quality lapses and being blacklisted in 2022, Bhole baba Dairy — one of the key accused — continued to supply ghee under new names like Vyshnavi Dairy and AR Dairy.
Each time a new name surfaced, TTD’s procurement system appeared to blink and look away.
🧪 THE SCIENCE OF DECEPTION
This wasn’t backyard-level tampering. Investigators say the adulterators used industrial-grade chemicals — including monoglycerides and acetic acid esters — to tweak lab parameters such as the Reichert-Meissl (RM) value, which determines the purity of ghee.
In other words, they hacked the very chemistry of trust.
The result: adulterated ghee that could pass official quality tests while being chemically engineered junk — unfit for human consumption, let alone divine offering.
🙏 FAITH BETRAYED: THE DEVOTIONAL AFTERSHOCK
The tirupati Laddu isn’t just food — it’s faith you can taste. For decades, devotees have carried it home as sacred prasadam, believed to be imbued with blessings from the deity himself.
Now, the revelation that it may have been prepared with spurious fat and fake ghee has triggered outrage across the country.
Religious leaders are demanding an apology and accountability from the ttd board. Devotees feel betrayed. And social media is ablaze with one haunting question:
“If faith itself can be adulterated, what’s left that’s pure?”
🧾 REGULATORS ASLEEP, DEVOTEES DECEIVED
The scandal also exposes a colossal failure of oversight.
How did this continue for five years without detection? Why were blacklisted dairies reappearing under new names?
The TTD’s procurement protocols — once touted as foolproof — have been torn apart. Even periodic lab testing seems to have been manipulated or ignored.
Experts now call for mandatory third-party audits, real-time tracking of dairy supply chains, and random isotopic testing of all raw materials used in religious prasadams.
🔥 THE AFTERMATH — AND THE QUESTIONS THAT WON’T DIE
As the SIT continues its investigation, the trail points to a network of collusion — among suppliers, middlemen, and possibly insiders within TTD’s procurement apparatus.
• The questions are explosive:
• How deep does this network go?
And will anyone ever be held accountable for defiling faith for profit?
⚖️ FAITH DESERVES JUSTICE
This isn’t merely a food fraud — it’s a spiritual crime.
It’s about the commodification of devotion, the commercialization of belief, and a betrayal that money cannot measure.
If proven true, the tirupati ghee scam will go down as one of the darkest chapters in India’s religious and regulatory history — where greed conquered God, and devotion was sold by the litre.
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