TTD Official Arrested Over Laddu Adulteration
- SIT arrests senior TTD engineering official in ghee adulteration probe
- Investigators link adulterated ghee supply to multiple private dairies
Hyderabad: The Laddu adulteration case at Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam saw a major development after the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team arrested a serving TTD official. The SIT, led by the Central Bureau of Investigation, arrested senior Engineering Department official RSSVR Subrahmanyam for his alleged role in the TTD laddu ghee adulteration case. The arrest marked a crucial point in the ongoing probe, which has already exposed large scale irregularities in the procurement of ghee used for preparing the famous laddu prasadam.
Subrahmanyam earlier served as the General Manager Procurement at TTD. He was responsible for procuring key materials, including the ghee needed to prepare laddus. According to SIT member and Guntur Range IG Sarvasresti Tripathi, the official allegedly issued quality certificates to private suppliers in exchange for bribes. The SIT produced him before the ACB Court, which remanded him to judicial custody for 15 days. He became the twenty ninth accused in the case and is also the first serving TTD official to be arrested. Meanwhile, the total number of people arrested in the case has now risen to nine.
Investigators said they arrested Subrahmanyam based on statements of some accused. These statements indicated a clear link between the TTD marketing wing and private dairy owners. The SIT recently questioned former TTD chairman and YSR Congress Parliamentary Party leader YV Subba Reddy over the period when adulterated ghee was allegedly used. It also questioned former TTD executive officer AV Dharma Reddy about lapses in procurement, supplier checks, and quality control. Officials reportedly asked him how Bhole Baba Dairy, blacklisted by TTD in 2022, continued supplying ghee through proxy firms.
The SIT also found large scale adulteration between 2019 and 2024. During this period, TTD produced 48.76 crore laddus, of which nearly 40 percent contained palm oil, palm kernel oil, and various chemical additives. The team arrested Ajay Kumar Sugandh for supplying chemicals to Bhole Baba Dairy. The investigation showed that Bhole Baba Organic Dairy of Uttarakhand never procured milk or butter but still supplied 68 lakh kilograms of ghee to TTD through proxies in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu. Officials valued this spurious supply at Rs 250 crore.
The SIT earlier arrested K Chinna Appanna, a close aide of former chairman Subba Reddy. Appanna allegedly helped award contracts to ineligible dairies. The alleged laddu scam surfaced after the new government took charge in June 2024. The State government formed an SIT in September, but the Supreme Court later replaced it with an independent five member SIT. This new team includes two CBI officers, two senior Andhra Pradesh police officers, and one officer from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.
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