The Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the supervision of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday sought a 10-day custody of the four accused, who were arrested on Sunday evening in connection with a case related to alleged supply of adulterated ghee to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) for the preparation of “laddu prasadam,” people familiar with the matter said.

The four accused — Bipin Jain and Pomil Jain, directors of Bhole Baba Organic Dairy Private Ltd based in Roorkee in Uttarakhand, Apoorva Vinay Kant Chawda, chief executive officer of Sri Vaishnavi Dairy Pvt Ltd of Poonambakkam and Raju Rajasekharan, managing director of AR Dairy, Dundigal in Tamil Nadu — were produced before the second additional munsif court judge at his residence in Tirupati late on Sunday and remanded until February 20.

An official of the TTD familiar with the information said the SIT authorities, led by joint director of CBI, Hyderabad zone Veeresh Prabhu, interrogated several people belonging to Sri Vaishnavi Dairy and AR Dairy, besides employees of the TTD in the last three days.

“Based on the information they gathered from the questioning, the SIT authorities summoned the four accused for questioning on Sunday before making the arrests. The SIT told the judge that the accused were not cooperating and hence, sought police custody for 10 days to question them,” the official said.

The investigation revealed that AR Dairy, based in Tamil Nadu, secured the TTD contract to supply ghee at ₹319.80 per kg. However, AR Dairy did not have the capacity to produce such large quantities. Instead, they purchased ghee from Sri Vaishnavi Dairy Private Limited and supplied it to the TTD. They used falsified documents, fake seals, and forged papers to secure the contract.

“Interestingly, Sri Vaishnavi Dairy also did not produce the ghee. The actual supplier was Bhole Baba Organic Dairy Private Limited, located in Roorkee, Uttarakhand. This dairy shipped the ghee to AR Dairy in tankers, which AR Dairy then repackaged under different invoice numbers before supplying it to Tirumala.

During the examination of records, it was found that there were discrepancies in the pricing of ghee as well. “While Bhole Baba Dairy sold ghee to Sri Vaishnavi Dairy at ₹355 per kg, Vaishnavi Dairy then supplied it to AR Dairy for ₹319.80 per kg. This led to the suspicion that the ghee was adulterated,” the official said.

The SIT also collected details regarding the production capacity of the dairies, and their milk procurement sources. “The SIT is probing why Sri Vaishnavi Dairy supplied ghee when the contract was awarded to AR Dairy and why the TTD accepted ghee at ₹319.80 per kg when market prices were above ₹500 per kg,” the official added.

Senior BJP leader and TTD trust board member Bhanu Prakash Reddy said the SIT investigation has thoroughly exposed how the adulterated ghee was supplied to the TTD with the collusion of the then officials. “We request the SIT to identify the real culprits behind the whole scam and prosecute them,” Reddy said.

YSR Congress party spokesman and former minister Ambati Rambabu alleged that the Chandrababu Naidu government was trying to cover up its lies on the Tirupati laddu issue by spreading falsehood and making arrests with ulterior motives.

“The arrests being made are only a face saving exercise by Chandarbabu Naidu who lied on the quality of the Tirupati laddu alleging that there was animal fat in the ghee. There is absolutely no truth in the allegation that the ghee used for prasadam was contaminated,” the YSRCP leader said.