Four held in TTD ghee row sent to jail till February 20

The Special Investigation Team under the supervision of Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday sought a 10-day custody of the four accused, who were arrested on Sunday evening in connection with a case related to alleged supply of adulterated ghee to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams for the preparation of “laddu prasadam,” people familiar with the matter said. An official of the TTD familiar with the information said the SIT authorities, led by joint director of CBI, Hyderabad zone Veeresh Prabhu, interrogated several people belonging to Sri Vaishnavi Dairy and AR Dairy, besides employees of the TTD in the last three days. The four accused — Bipin Jain and Pomil Jain, directors of Bhole Baba Organic Dairy Private Ltd based in Roorkee in Uttarakhand, Apoorva Vinay Kant Chawda, chief executive officer of Sri Vaishnavi Dairy Pvt Ltd of Poonambakkam and Raju Rajasekharan, managing director of AR Dairy, Dundigal in Tamil Nadu — were produced before the second additional munsif court judge at his residence in Tirupati late on Sunday and remanded until February 20. “While Bhole Baba Dairy sold ghee to Sri Vaishnavi Dairy at ₹355 per kg, Vaishnavi Dairy then supplied it to AR Dairy for ₹319.80 per kg. “The SIT is probing why Sri Vaishnavi Dairy supplied ghee when the contract was awarded to AR Dairy and why the TTD accepted ghee at ₹319.80 per kg when market prices were above ₹500 per kg,” the official added.