IPS officer to head SIT for probing Tirupati laddu case

The Andhra Pradesh government appointed senior IPS officer Sarvashresth Tripathi as the head of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Tuesday to probe the alleged adulteration of ghee used in making the famous Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) temple laddu prasadam, people familiar with the matter said.

Tripathi, a 2006-batch IPS officer of Andhra cadre, is presently working as the inspector general of police, Guntur range.

Apart from Tripathi, the SIT will comprise two more senior IPS officers – Visakhapatnam range deputy inspector general of police Gopinath Jetty and Kadapa district superintendent of police Harshavardhan Raju.

Tripathi had earlier worked as the superintendent of police in Guntur and Krishna districts. He was posted as the Guntur range IG during the recent assembly elections, replacing IPS officer Pala Raju, as per the directions of the Election Commission. He has since been posted there.

“Apart from the circumstances that led to the adulteration of the ghee used in the preparation of the Tirumala laddu, the SIT will also look into other irregularities that have allegedly taken place during the previous regime in the last five years,” an official in chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s office said, on condition of anonymity.

On Sunday, Naidu ordered a probe by the SIT into the alleged irregularities at the TTD to be headed by a high-ranking officer.

Stating that action would be taken against the guilty based on the SIT report, he vowed to purify Tirumala and restore its glory.

Earlier, Naidu alleged that the ghee mixed with animal fat was used in making laddu prasadam when the YSRCP led by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was in power. Samples from four tankers supplying the ghee were sent to the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) for analysis, Naidu added.

Quoting a lab report, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) pointed out that some samples of ghee which was used for the preparation of the laddus revealed the presence of beef tallow, lard (relating to pig fat), and fish oil.

Meanwhile, several Hindu religious leaders, including those from the Andhra Pradesh Hindu Sadhu Parishad, staged a protest outside the temple’s administrative building over the issue on Tuesday.

The protesters demanded stringent punishment to those involved and said a case should immediately be filed.

“Such desecration of Tirumala has never happened before. Those involved in tarnishing the sanctity of Tirumala should not be spared,” one of the protesters said. He demanded that the government conduct a thorough probe into the affairs of TTD during the last five years.