The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 129.85 crore belonging to companies, their promoters and family members involved in supplying adulterated ghee to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) for making laddu prasadam, the agency said on Wednesday.
The ED alleged that Bhole Baba Organic Dairymilk and Sri Vyshnavi Dairy Specialities, along with Sukriti Foods, were involved in supplying adulterated ghee worth Rs 234.5 crore to the temple body and routing money through hawala transactions.
The attached assets belong to Bhole Baba Organic Dairymilk, its promoters Vipin Jain and Pomil Jain and their family members, as well as Sukriti Foods, its promoter Kailash Chand Mangla and his family members.
According to the ED, the investigation began following an FIR registered by the Tirupati East Police Station and two chargesheets alleging a criminal conspiracy to supply adulterated ghee for preparing the sacred Lord Venkateswara Laddu Prasadam. The alleged offences include cheating, endangering public health and generating unlawful gains.
The central agency alleged that Bhole Baba supplied the adulterated ghee directly and through front dairies, which participated in TTD tenders in their own names in exchange for commissions.
The ED said the ghee was manufactured at the factories of Bhole Baba and Sukriti Foods by blending refined palm oil, palm kernel oil and palmolein with chemicals, including monoglycerides, acetic acid ester, lactic acid and beta-carotene. The products were then invoiced as edible oils.
To conceal the transactions, the accused showed the palm oil as having been sold to bogus buyers while recording fictitious purchases of milk and ghee and fictitious sales of by-products such as skimmed milk to project the appearance of a genuine dairy business, the agency said.
Payments made through banking channels for the alleged fictitious purchases were subsequently returned in cash through hawala channels, according to the ED. The cash was used to fund bogus palm-oil buyers, pay commissions to front dairies and make payments to other individuals linked to the alleged fraud.
The agency had earlier conducted searches in March 2026 at 16 premises across Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. The searches resulted in the seizure and freezing of cash and bank balances worth Rs 2.7 crore.
The ED also arrested Vipin Jain and Kailash Chand Mangla.
The latest attachment takes the total value of attachments in the case, including seizures and freezing of assets under Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), to Rs 132.55 crore, the agency said.
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