Chronology
Timeline
Follow the record in sequence; every event opens to its supporting source.
First adulterated ghee supply — SIT says fraud predates YSRCP rule
Reporting on the January 2026 SIT chargesheet dates the alleged fraudulent ghee supply to February 18, 2019 — when the Telugu Desam Party, led by then-CM N. Chandrababu Naidu, was in government. The Wire reports that Harsh Fresh Dairy Products (later renamed Bhole Baba Organic Dairy) won a TTD tender for 82,000 kg of ghee at ₹291/kg, a price the SIT considered unviable for genuine cow ghee. The reported start date means the alleged supply was not confined to the subsequent YSRCP government's term; the amount supplied in each term is not established here.
TTD Board Resolution No. 371 relaxes supplier eligibility — SIT flags as enabling fraud
The Wire's account of the SIT chargesheet says TTD Board Resolution No. 371 removed the mandatory 4-lakh-litres-per-day milk procurement requirement for ghee suppliers and reduced the minimum turnover threshold from ₹250 crore to ₹150 crore. That account says the change enabled dairies without milk procurement to bid. The underlying board resolution and chargesheet are not archived here.
New TTD EO forms Ghee Expert Committee; internal report reveals TTD Lab had no adulteration-detection capability
After the TDP's May 2024 election victory, TTD's new Executive Officer issued proceedings (file ref TTD-34022(31)/121/2024-PROCURMENT SEC-TTD) constituting a four-member Ghee Expert Committee (dairy scientists from NDRI Bangalore, Veterinary University Kamareddy, IIM Bangalore, and a private dairy expert). The EO's own internal report, signed by the Executive Officer TTD, acknowledged: 'Tests were only confined to the above parameters in TTD Lab and not on adulteration. Altogether 14 number of samples were tested and rejected since 2022 based on parameters other than adulteration. No adulteration test was done and therefore the question of rejection on the basis of adulteration doesn't exist.' The TTD Lab lacked GC and HPLC equipment required for FAME, β-sitosterol, and fatty acid profile testing — so TTD's in-house tests could not independently identify this type of adulteration.
Four tankers of ghee sent to NDDB CALF laboratory for advanced testing
The TTD Water and Food Analysis Laboratory sent ghee samples from four tanker loads (two from 06-07-2024 deliveries; two collected 12-07-2024) to NDDB CALF (Centre for Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food), Anand, Gujarat — a NABL-accredited laboratory (TC-11516) and an FSSAI-recognised referral laboratory for milk and milk products. Two booking IDs were registered: BID-010961 (July 8 request) and BID-011161 (July 12 request).
NDDB CALF issues six test reports: adulterants confirmed; S-value flags 'Palm oil and Beef tallow' — with caveats
NDDB CALF issued six reports (NCL-025504 through NCL-026173). Key findings across all samples: (1) Butyric acid (C4:0), a marker unique to dairy fat, was absent or below the limit of quantification in every sample (FSSAI spec: 1.000–5.000%) — its absence weighs against these samples being genuine cow ghee. (2) β-Sitosterol, a plant sterol, was detected at 156–209 mg/kg against a specification of 'Absent' — confirming vegetable oil adulteration. (3) Lauric acid was 10–14% vs the dairy spec of 1.5–4%, consistent with palm kernel or coconut oil. (4) Palmitic acid was 39–40% vs spec 22–38%, consistent with palm oil. One sample (NCL-025504) passed the 13 routine FSSAI basic parameters — Baudouin test, mineral oil detection, and free fatty acid all within spec — showing those basic tests alone did not detect all adulteration. The fatty-acid and S-value report for the same sample (NCL-025505) used the ISO 17678:2019 milk fat purity method (Annexure-1, Lab Ref AB021253): all five S-value equations fell outside the standard range — Eq.1: 87.61 (range 98.05–101.95), Eq.2: 106.90 (range 99.42–100.58), Eq.3: 23.22 (range 95.90–104.10), Eq.4: 116.09 (range 97.96–102.04), Eq.5: 20.32 (range 95.68–104.32). Per ISO 17678:2019 Table-2, Equation 3 targets 'Palm oil and Beef tallow' and Equation 4 targets 'Lard.' Critically, NDDB CALF's own Annexure-1 note (Interpretation section) states the method 'is not applicable to milk fat' under eight listed conditions, including when the fat is 'obtained from cows which received an exceptionally high feeding of pure vegetable oils such as rapeseed oil, cotton or palm oil etc.' — a limitation that means the S-value deviation alone cannot establish beef tallow or lard.
CM Naidu publicly alleges beef tallow and lard — based on the ISO 17678 S-value anomaly in NDDB CALF report
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, at a public event, stated that the Tirupati laddu ghee contained beef tallow and lard. His claim was specifically grounded in the NDDB CALF test report's ISO 17678:2019 S-value results (Annexure-1, Lab Ref AB021253). Per the method's own Table-2, Equation 3 targets 'Palm oil and Beef tallow' and Equation 4 targets 'Lard.' In the test, Equation 3 registered 23.22 against a standard range of 95.90–104.10, and Equation 4 registered 116.09 against a range of 97.96–102.04 — both dramatically out of range, giving a surface reading that those adulterants were present. However, NDDB CALF's own Annexure-1 Note section of the same report states: 'However, under the circumstances listed hereafter, a false positive result can be obtained. Hence, the method is not applicable to milk fat in case of: … Obtained from cows which received an exceptionally high feeding of pure vegetable oils such as rapeseed oil, cotton or palm oil etc.' The archived plant-sterol and fatty-acid tests support vegetable-oil adulteration; the S-value reading alone does not identify the animal fats alleged. This limitation was not acknowledged in Naidu's public statement. Naidu made the statement before any FIR had been filed (FIR registered 25 Sep 2024), before any SIT had been constituted, and while only preliminary tests were complete. A TDP source later told The News Minute that Naidu's claim was also based on the quantity of LABSA — 8,900 kg — allegedly purchased by Harsh Fresh Dairy between March 2022 and May 2024 from Delhi-based Aristio Chemicals. Later reporting on the January 2026 SIT chargesheet says it found no beef tallow or lard.
TTD EO confirms adulteration; temple conducts purification ceremony
TTD Executive Officer J. Shyamala Rao confirmed that lab tests revealed adulterants in ghee samples. On September 22–23, the temple conducted a 'Shuddhikaran Pooja' with a Shanti Homa (6 am–10 am) and a purification process using Panchagavyam. The YSRCP called the entire controversy a 'planned economic conspiracy' and a 'calculated lie,' saying it was politically orchestrated by Naidu.
Supreme Court criticises CM Naidu for public statements during live investigation
The Supreme Court criticised Chief Minister Naidu for making public comments on the nature of adulteration while the matter was under active investigation. The bench noted there was no conclusive evidence to establish animal fat in the laddus during the YSRCP period. This was a bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan hearing W.P.(C) No.622/2024 and connected petitions.
Supreme Court constitutes independent SIT under CBI Director's supervision
In W.P.(C) No.622/2024, the Supreme Court (Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan) constituted an independent SIT comprising 2 officers nominated by the CBI Director, 2 AP State Police officers, and 1 senior FSSAI officer, supervised by the CBI Director. The Court held that an independent body would inspire public confidence and dissolved the state-appointed SIT.
Reported NDDB CALF clarification: S-value result did not prove animal fat
The News Minute and South First reported that NDDB CALF sent a January 8, 2025 letter to the Supreme Court-supervised SIT clarifying that the July 2024 S-value anomalies indicating 'beef tallow' should not be read as confirmed animal fat. Those reports say cholesterol was not detected in the samples. According to those publications, NDDB CALF explained that the ISO 17678:2019 S-value method had inherent limitations — producing false positives when samples contain vegetable oils, including palm oil — and that the samples showed a fatty acid profile consistent with palm oil, palm stearin, and palm kernel oil rather than with any animal fat. The letter itself has not been archived, so its precise wording and scope remain unverified here.
CBI arrests four dairy principals
The CBI-led SIT arrested four individuals: Pomil Jain and Bipin Jain (directors, Bhole Baba Organic Dairy, Roorkee, Uttarakhand), Apoorva Vinay Kant Chawda (CEO, Vaishnavi Dairy), and Raju Rajasekharan (MD, AR Dairy, Tamil Nadu). Investigation found Bhole Baba Dairy had processed zero litres of milk or butter yet supplied 68 lakh kg of synthetic 'ghee' to TTD, using palm oil sourced from Kolkata, chemical esters, beta-carotene, and flavouring.
NDDB CALF final report for chargesheet: 'primarily palm oil, palm stearin, palm kernel oil'
Secondary reporting describes a March 27, 2025 NDDB CALF report as part of the SIT chargesheet record. Those accounts describe the adulterated ghee as being 'primarily a mixture of palm oil, palm stearin, and palm kernel oil' with very little actual ghee content — and no animal fat of any kind. The full laboratory report and chargesheet are not archived here, so that account remains attributed to those publications.
CM Naidu claims 'bathroom cleaner chemicals' in ghee — secondary sources conflict on what chargesheet actually says
CM Naidu, addressing a public meeting in Yemmiganur, Kurnool, claimed that ghee was 'made with chemicals used for cleaning bathrooms' — referring to LABSA (Linear Alkylbenzene Sulfonic Acid), a surfactant used in detergents and dishwash liquids. The claim was based on 8,900 kg of LABSA allegedly purchased by Harsh Fresh Dairy between March 2022 and May 2024 from Delhi-based Aristio Chemicals — a quantity Naidu flagged as suspiciously large. However, The News Minute's reading of the chargesheet says LABSA was purchased but the chargesheet 'does not say that they used it to prepare ghee.' ETV Bharat's reading says the chargesheet explicitly states the dairy 'mixed cheap oils like palm oil and palm kernel oil with LABSA and lactic acid to make the product resemble ghee.' This discrepancy between two credible secondary sources cannot be resolved without the chargesheet text.
AP High Court says CBI Director violated SC order; Supreme Court stays HC ruling
The Andhra Pradesh High Court held that the CBI Director had violated the Supreme Court's mandate by appointing officer J. Venkat Rao — not formally on the SIT roster — to conduct the investigation. The HC directed a fresh probe by the SC-approved reconstituted panel. The Supreme Court (CJI B.R. Gavai, Justices K. Vinod Chandran and N.V. Anjaria) stayed the HC order in Director, CBI v. Kaduru Chinnappanna, observing that delegating investigation to another officer was not impermissible when the CBI Director retained supervision.
SIT files chargesheet naming 36; reporting says no animal fat found
After a 15-month investigation across 12 states, the CBI-led SIT filed its final chargesheet at the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court in Nellore, naming 36 individuals — including 9 TTD officials and 5 dairy experts. Reporting on the chargesheet says it found no beef tallow or lard and describes a mixture of refined palm oil, palm stearin, and palm kernel oil with additives to mimic cow ghee. The chargesheet and March 2025 lab report are not archived here. Total supply: approximately 68 lakh kg worth ₹250 crore, affecting an estimated 20 crore laddus between 2021 and 2024. A hawala network and shell companies were allegedly used to route proceeds.
Supreme Court dismisses Subramanian Swamy's challenge to state's parallel inquiry
A Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant dismissed a writ petition by senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy challenging the AP government's one-member committee appointed to identify administrative masterminds behind the adulteration. The Court held the departmental inquiry and the court-monitored SIT investigation operate in separate domains and may proceed simultaneously.
State administrative inquiry reportedly identifies procurement failures
The Indian Express reported that retired IAS officer Dinesh Kumar's one-member committee attributed the ghee problem to tender and testing failures, including an allegedly unacted-on August 2022 CFTRI result. Deccan Chronicle reported that the committee submitted its report on 24 April and that AP's G.O. No. 900 set up a follow-up committee on 7 May. The committee report, CFTRI result and government order are not archived here, so these remain attributed reports, not independently verified official findings or proof of individual guilt.
ED searches dairy-linked premises in money-laundering probe
ED reported searches at 15 locations, including three dairy plants, and seizure of ₹60 lakh cash. It described documents and property leads linked to an alleged network of bogus transactions. An October ED recap instead says 16 premises and ₹2.7 crore seized or frozen; the releases do not reconcile the location count, and the later figure covers more than the June cash seizure.
TTD says new food and water analysis laboratory is operational
TTD announced that its Tirumala laboratory had produced its first analysis report, had more than 50 instruments and about 30 scientists and technical staff, and was testing roughly 40 food and 20 water samples daily, including samples from laddu preparation. This is TTD's description of a new quality-control capacity, not an independent audit of continued compliance.
ED arrests Sukriti Foods promoter under PMLA
ED arrested Kailash Chand Mangla under PMLA section 19; it says the Special PMLA Court in Visakhapatnam remanded him to judicial custody. ED alleges his Sukriti Foods factory manufactured about ₹96 crore of adulterated product, routed through front dairies. ED also says it had arrested Bhole Baba promoter Vipin Jain earlier, without giving that ED-arrest date. These remain allegations; remand is not a conviction.
ED provisionally attaches ₹129.85 crore of assets
ED provisionally attached assets associated with Bhole Baba, Sri Vyshnavi Dairy, Sukriti Foods, promoters and related persons. It put the total attached, seized or frozen at ₹132.55 crore. ED alleges ₹234.5 crore of adulterated supply and a concealment route involving fictitious dairy entries, bogus palm-oil buyers and cash returned through hawala channels. This is an ongoing PMLA investigation; the attachment is not final confiscation or a court finding of guilt.
Legal proceedings
Court record lanes
The branches keep separate proceedings and their identifiers distinct; they do not imply a final merits finding.
The Supreme Court's supervisory matter, the underlying criminal case at Nellore, and ED's PMLA case in Visakhapatnam are distinct. No charge-framing, conviction, acquittal, or final asset-confiscation order is archived. Official SC order PDFs and the PMLA court orders have not been locally archived.
W.P.(C) No.622/2024 — Supreme Court of India
- Bench (Oct 2024)
- Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan
- Bench (Sep 2025)
- CJI B.R. Gavai, Justices K. Vinod Chandran and N.V. Anjaria
- Bench (Feb 2026)
- CJI Surya Kant (dismissal of Swamy petition)
- 30 Sep 2024
- SC criticised CM Naidu for public comments during live investigation; held no conclusive evidence of animal fat established
- 4 Oct 2024
- SC constituted independent SIT (2 CBI + 2 AP Police + 1 FSSAI) under CBI Director's supervision; dissolved state-appointed SIT
- Sep 2025
- SC (Director, CBI v. Kaduru Chinnappanna) stayed AP High Court order that had found CBI Director violated SC mandate by appointing officer outside SIT
- 23 Feb 2026
- SC dismissed Subramanian Swamy's challenge to the state's parallel administrative inquiry panel
- Status
- Current supervisory status unconfirmed; official SCI order PDFs not yet archived locally
HC order on CBI SIT composition — stayed by Supreme Court (Sep 2025)
- HC finding
- AP High Court held CBI Director violated SC's October 2024 mandate by appointing J. Venkat Rao (outside the SIT roster) as Investigating Officer
- HC direction
- HC directed fresh investigation by the SC-approved reconstituted SIT panel
- SC stay
- Supreme Court stayed the HC order on or around September 22–26, 2025 in Director, CBI v. Kaduru Chinnappanna
- Gap
- AP High Court case number/CNR and the HC order text have not been archived locally
SIT chargesheet stage — trial pending
- Chargesheet filed
- 23 January 2026 by CBI-led SIT after 15-month investigation across 12 states
- Accused
- 36 named total — 24 primary accused and 12 others with a role — including 9 TTD officials and 5 dairy experts
- Key lab finding
- NDDB/CALF lab report (27 Mar 2025): ghee was primarily palm oil, palm stearin, palm kernel oil — no animal fat
- Scale
- ~68 lakh kg synthetic 'ghee', ~₹250 crore, affecting ~20 crore laddus (2021-2024)
- Status
- Chargesheet filed; charge-framing and trial outcome not yet reported; no conviction archived
- Gap
- Full chargesheet text, NDDB/CALF lab report PDF, and court docket not archived locally
Visakhapatnam — ED money-laundering investigation
- 17 Sep 2026
- ED arrested Sukriti Foods promoter Kailash Chand Mangla under PMLA section 19; ED says the court remanded him to judicial custody
- Earlier arrest
- ED says it also arrested Bhole Baba promoter Vipin Jain; exact ED-arrest date not given in the archived releases
- 14 Oct 2026
- ED announced a ₹129.85 crore provisional attachment; total attached, seized or frozen ₹132.55 crore
- Status
- ED says investigation continues; remand and attachment orders, any PMLA complaint, and final adjudication not archived
Evidence boundary
Supported and not established
The line matters: archived records can support a finding without resolving every allegation, motive, or final outcome.
What the sources support
- The original NDDB CALF test reports from July 2024 (NCL-025504 through NCL-026173, now archived) confirm adulteration across all samples: butyric acid — the definitive short-chain marker of dairy fat — was absent or below the limit of quantification in every sample; β-Sitosterol (plant sterol) was detected at 156–209 mg/kg where specification requires 'Absent'; and the fatty acid profile showed elevated lauric acid (10–14%, spec 1.5–4%) and palmitic acid (39–40%, spec 22–38%) consistent with palm kernel/coconut oil and palm oil respectively.
- The archived NDDB CALF report contains an ISO 17678:2019 method caveat. Its S-value deviation is not, by itself, specific proof of beef tallow or lard; the independently measured plant-sterol and fatty-acid results support vegetable-oil adulteration.
- TTD's signed Executive Officer report says its lab did not perform adulteration testing on 14 samples rejected since 2022; it lacked GC and HPLC equipment. This establishes a testing gap, not the composition of every delivery from 2019 to 2024.
- Secondary reporting on the March 2025 NDDB CALF report and January 2026 SIT chargesheet describes a palm-oil mixture and says no beef tallow or lard was found. Those two documents are not archived here.
- Secondary reports on the SIT chargesheet put the alleged supply at approximately 68 lakh kg of synthetic 'ghee' worth about ₹250 crore between 2019 and 2024; the chargesheet itself is not archived.
- The Wire's account of the SIT chargesheet dates the alleged supply to February 18, 2019 — during TDP rule, before YSRCP came to power in May 2019.
- Legal reporting on the Supreme Court's October 4, 2024 order in W.P.(C) No.622/2024 says the Court constituted a CBI-supervised SIT; the official order PDF is not archived here.
- Reporting says the CBI-led SIT arrested four dairy principals in February 2025; the remand orders and current trial docket are not archived here.
- ED's official releases document June 2026 searches, Mangla's September PMLA arrest and judicial remand, and an October provisional attachment of ₹129.85 crore. ED alleges ₹234.5 crore of adulterated supply and fictitious accounting and hawala routes; these are investigative claims, not trial findings.
- TTD announced that a new Tirumala food and water analysis laboratory was operational by June 2026. Reporting on a separate state committee describes procurement and testing failures, but its full report and the underlying 2022 CFTRI test have not been archived.
What remains unresolved
- CM Naidu's 'beef tallow/lard' allegation was grounded in the ISO 17678:2019 S-value test deviation in the July 2024 NDDB CALF report — but the archived NDDB CALF report carries a method caveat, and reporting on its January 8, 2025 clarification letter says the S-value deviation cannot alone confirm animal fat. Reporting on the SIT chargesheet says it found no beef tallow or lard. No court has characterised Naidu's framing as deliberate misrepresentation.
- The LABSA ('bathroom cleaner') allegation (Feb 6, 2026): secondary sources conflict on whether the chargesheet states LABSA was used in ghee preparation (ETV Bharat) or merely purchased by the dairy (The News Minute). The chargesheet text itself is required to resolve this.
- The NDDB CALF January 8, 2025 clarification letter and the March 27, 2025 final report have not been publicly released and are not yet archived locally — current knowledge of their contents relies on secondary reporting.
- No trial-court judgment, charge-framing order, conviction, or acquittal has been archived for the ACB court proceedings at Nellore.
- The identities of the 9 TTD officials named as accused and their specific roles in approving or overlooking the adulteration are not yet publicly established from the available sources.
- The exact volume attributable to the TDP period (pre-May 2019) versus the YSRCP period (2019-2024) has not been independently verified from official court records.
- Official SCI-hosted Supreme Court order PDFs for W.P.(C) No.622/2024 (30 Sep 2024 and 4 Oct 2024) have not been archived locally; findings rely on SCC Online and Bar & Bench reporting.
- Whether W.P.(C) No.622/2024 remains open for ongoing supervisory monitoring, or has been formally closed following the chargesheet, is not confirmed from available sources.
- The PMLA arrest/remand and provisional attachment orders, any PMLA prosecution complaint, and any adjudication or trial outcome are not archived; ₹129.85 crore is a provisional attachment, not recovered compensation or final confiscation.
- ED's June release says 15 search locations; its October recap says 16. The source of that discrepancy and Vipin Jain's ED-arrest date are not established by the archived releases.
- ED names Vipin Jain, while earlier reporting cited for the February 2025 CBI arrests names Bipin Jain. The underlying arrest records are needed to verify the spelling and identity before merging them.
- The Dinesh Kumar administrative committee report, August 2022 CFTRI result, G.O. No. 900 and follow-up committee report have not been archived. Reporting about officials' responsibility and untested quantities is a review lead rather than a final finding.