Laddu ghee: Tirupati court transfers probe to ACB court in Nellore

This follows the Special Investigation Team’s move to charge two officials from Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) with corruption. A petition has been filed under Sections 7 and 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act against a senior assistant and a superintendent from TTD’s marketing department.

The case, which has drawn nationwide attention, is being handled by a five-member SIT led by CBI joint director (Hyderabad) Veeresh Prabhu. Other members include CBI SP (Visakhapatnam) Murali Rambha, IG Sarvashresth Tripathi, DIG Gopinath Jatti, and FSSAI official Dr Satya Kumar Panda.
So far, the SIT has arrested four key accused: Raju Rajasekaran, MD of AR Dairy in Tamil Nadu; Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain, directors of Bhole Baba Organic Dairy in Uttarakhand; and Apoorva Vinaykant Chavda, CEO of Vaishnavi Dairy Specialties Ltd in Tirupati district.

They remain in judicial custody at Tirupati sub-jail, having earlier undergone SIT interrogation from February 14 to 18. Additional questioning of Pomil Jain and Apoorva Chavda was conducted from March 4 to 6.

With corruption charges now a part of the case, the SIT sought and received court approval to shift proceedings to the ACB court. The team has gathered all necessary documents and evidence for submission. Meanwhile, bail petitions filed by the accused have been rejected twice. Any future bail requests will now be handled by the ACB court.

The SIT continues its investigation, preparing its report for submission to the Supreme Court that ordered the probe.