Tirupati: CBI-led special investigation team (SIT), probing the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams’ (TTD) laddu adulteration case, arrested Chinna Appanna, a close aide of the board’s former chairman and Rajya Sabha MP Y V Subba Reddy on Wednesday night. Appanna was produced before the ACB court in Nellore, and remanded in judicial custody till Nov 11.The SIT found that in 2022, Appanna had allegedly approached the general manager of TTD’s procurement department and taken details of all ghee suppliers to the temple. He then called P P Srinivas of Bhole Baba dairy and allegedly demanded a commission of Rs 25 per kg of ghee supplied to TTD, sources told TOI.When the management of Bhole Baba dairy refused, he is said to have put pressure on the general manager of TTD’s procurement department to conduct a second physical inspection of their plant, against the temple body’s rules, to get them disqualified in the next ghee supply tenders, sources said. Appanna is also accused of sending anonymous petitions against Bhole Baba dairy to get them disqualified. At that time, Bhole Baba was supplying ghee to TTD at Rs 329 per kg.As per the investigators, Appanna then got acquainted with Premier Agri Foods company and struck a deal with the management. After Bhole Baba dairy was eliminated from the tenders, Premier Agri Foods quoted a price of Rs 467 per kg — Rs 138 per kg higher than Bhole Baba’s price — and yet got the ghee supply contract from TTD.Sources claimed Appanna allegedly received kickbacks of nearly Rs 50 lakh in different tranches of transactions, reportedly routed to him through a hawala agent.While the SIT named 15 accused in its first chargesheet filed earlier, nine new accused, including Appanna, were added later.Controversy over the Tirupati laddu broke in Sept 2024 after chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu accused the previous YSRCP govt of allowing the laddus to be adulterated with beef tallow, fish oil and pig lard. A lab report from the National Dairy Development Board’s Centre for Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food indicated traces of foreign fats, raising alarms. Officials had traced these to a batch of ghee from a dairy in Tamil Nadu. YSRCP functionaries had hit back saying any ghee that did not meet quality standards had been discarded.
