Hyderabad: The Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP is now on a counteroffensive against Andhra Pradesh’s ruling TDP-JSP combine over the issue of alleged adulteration of Tirupati laddu ghee with animal fat after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) found no such evidence.
The allegations of adulteration triggered widespread outrage in 2024 after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu claimed that the laddus offered to Lord Venkateswara were made with inferior ingredients during the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party’s (YSRCP) tenure, and that “most painfully animal fat was used in place of pure ghee”.
On Friday morning, senior YSRCP leader and former Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) chairman Bhumana Karunakar Reddy conducted a Srinivasa Prasada Ninda Parihara Homam at Tirupati, a ritual seeking exoneration from false accusations, after the SIT found impurities in the ghee but said they were of vegetable oil origin.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)-supervised SIT was formed after the Supreme Court’s orders in October 2024.
The SIT probing the matter has found that 5,971 tonnes of adulterated ghee was supplied to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) between 2019 and 2024 in the name of Agmark Special Grade cow ghee.
The SIT found that certain private ghee-supplying dairy companies colluded with some TTD employees, and caused a loss of Rs 234 crore over five years to the temple trust.
It noted that the adulterated ghee was used in the preparation of sacred laddus and other prasadams at the Lord Venkateswara temple, “which hurt the sentiments of crores of devotees”.
However, the SIT probe, carried out under the supervision of the CBI director, with officers from the central agency, Andhra Pradesh Police and the Food Safety and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), has recorded no evidence of animal fat—fish oil and lard—in the adulterated ghee.
Also Read: Year after Tirumala ‘adulterated ghee’ row, TTD equips itself with high-tech lab to check suppliers
Naidu’s allegations
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Naidu had claimed that the sentiments of millions of devotees, especially in Andhra Pradesh, where Lord Venkateswara is highly revered, were hurt “on discovering the truth of how the laddus were being prepared before his government came to power in June”.
Om Namo Venkatesaya 🙏🏻
Despite national media clearly stating the facts, the TDP continues to push a false narrative on the Tirupati laddu issue. Verified reports have made it clear that there was no animal fat, yet misinformation is being spread… pic.twitter.com/oPNX32tfO9
— YSR Congress Party (@YSRCParty) January 30, 2026
Naidu’s deputy and NDA ally, Pawan Kalyan, too rallied at temples in agitation, saying the alleged adulteration of laddu ghee was an attack on Sanatana Dharma.
The Jana Sena Party (JSP) chief even undertook an 11-day prayaschita deeksha to “atone” for what he described as various affronts to the Hindu faith, including the alleged contamination of laddu prasadam at Tirupati during the YSRCP administration.
Kalyan also cast doubts on the one lakh laddus sent by the TTD for the Ayodhya Ram Mandir consecration ceremony earlier that year.
YSRCP leaders, including former chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, vehemently denied the allegations, calling them politically motivated.
Calling the chief minister’s allegations unsubstantiated, former Union minister Subramanian Swamy and YSRCP Rajya Sabha MP Y.V. Subba Reddy—a former TTD chairman—approached the Supreme Court seeking a deeper probe led by a retired SC judge or retired high court chief justice into the allegations that sparked a massive row nationwide.
In his writ petition in the Supreme Court filed on 23 September 2024, days after Naidu’s statements, Swamy cited and annexed ThePrint’s report that broke the news, quoting TTD executive officer Syamala Rao, that the ghee purportedly found to be contaminated with animal fat was never used to make laddus.
The SIT was formed on the Supreme Court’s orders in October 2024, replacing a probe team formed by the Andhra Pradesh government earlier.
On Thursday, former Minister Chelluboyina Venu Gopala Krishna said Naidu and Kalyan’s “conspiracy” to politically exploit the Tirumala laddu issue has been fully exposed, and demanded the two leaders immediately apologise to crores of devotees for deliberately “hurting religious sentiments through false allegations”.
Chargesheet
Last week, the SIT filed a final supplementary chargesheet in a court at Nellore.
The SIT said that its investigation revealed that Bhole Baba Organic Dairy Milk, both itself and through Sri Vyshnavi Dairy Specialties, Malganga Milk and Agro Products and AR Dairy Food, supplied a total of 59,71,781 kg of adulterated ghee, amounting to a misappropriation of Rs 234 crore TTD funds between May 2019 and September 2024.
The report added that the SIT approached the National Dairy Development Board, Centre for Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food (NDDB CALF) in Anand, Gujarat, for analysis of raw data and further testing of the remaining ghee samples drawn by TTD from four tankers sent by AR Dairy Food Pvt Ltd (accused No 1) to Tirumala on 6 July and 12 July 2024 to obtain a conclusive opinion on adulterants.
NDDB CALF Anand conducted the tests and submitted its report in March 2025, with the results suggesting that the samples mainly contain vegetable oils and/or fats of plant origin, and the “possibility for presence of fat from Animal origin (Ghee, Tallow, Lard or Fish oil) appears very less”.
“The absence of cholesterol in the samples also suggests that the chances for presence of tallow, lard and fish oil are very low,” it said.
NDDB CALF also concluded that the quantity of ghee in the samples was very little. According to it, some compounds were added to the samples to comply with FSSAI rules.
“Based on the fatty acid profile and presence of beta sitosterol in Ghee samples from TTD, it is concluded that these samples are primarily a mixture of palm oil and/or palm stearin with palm kernel oil,” it said.
The samples from AR Dairy tankers were also sent through the Nellore court to ICAR-NDRI in Karnal, Haryana, to test for the presence of lard and other animal fats.
An NDRI report dated 16 May 2025 said that all four samples were analysed and no lard was detected.
YSRCP on offensive
On Thursday, a day after the chargesheet came to light, YSRCP leader and former TTD chairman Y.V. Subba Reddy said the SIT has conclusively established that no animal fat or any animal-derived substances were found in the Tirupati laddu ghee, “thereby completely demolishing the sensational and faith-shaking allegations made by Naidu in September 2024.”
Reddy said the finding has brought immense relief to crores of devotees across the world, as well as to families who were deeply hurt by the “irresponsible propaganda unleashed in the name of Lord Venkateswara”.
Subba Reddy, however, said that “several disturbing questions remain unanswered and must now be addressed by the Naidu-led government”.
The former TTD chairman said the four tankers from AR Dairy—on the basis of which the controversy began—belonged to the period after the change in government following the 2024 polls, and that the same consignments were first rejected and later reused under different names.
Reddy demanded to know who permitted this, under whose authority those tankers were handled, and how rejected ghee re-entered the system. “The present government owes clear answers to the people of Andhra Pradesh and to crores of devotees worldwide,” he said.
The YSRCP Rajya Sabha member added that while the SIT has named 36 accused, including ghee suppliers and some TTD employees and external dairy experts, “accountability cannot stop there, and the full chain of responsibility must be established”.
Karunakar Reddy, who took over as TTD chairman from Subba Reddy in 2023, said the CBI-SIT report categorically stated that there was a nexus between certain officials and ghee suppliers, but there is “no mention of any YSRCP leader in the case”.
Despite this, Karunakar said that Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu continued to make allegations even in Cabinet meetings, falsely claiming that relaxation of tender norms led to adulteration.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
Also Read: SC raps Chandrababu over ‘animal fat in Tirupati laddu’ claim, asks why go public without proof