New Delhi, Oct 14 The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday alleged that hawala transactions were undertaken by the companies which supplied adulterated ghee worth Rs 234.5 crore to the Andhra Pradesh-based Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) for preparing the ‘laddu prasadam’.
The central agency said in a statement that it has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 129.85 crore, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), belonging to the accused companies and their promoters.
The entities named by the ED include Bhole Baba Organic Dairymilk and Sri Vyshnavi Dairy Specialities, along with their promoters Vipin Jain and Pomil Jain and their family members; as well as Sukriti Foods, its promoter Kailash Chand Mangla and his family members.
The agency alleged that adulterated ghee worth Rs 234.5 crore was supplied to the TTD by Bhole Baba, directly and through front dairies which bid for TTD tenders in their own names in exchange for commissions.
The ghee was allegedly manufactured at the factories of Bhole Baba and Sukriti Foods by blending refined palm oil, palm kernel oil and palmolein with chemicals such as monoglycerides, acetic acid ester, lactic acid and beta-carotene, and then invoiced as edible oils, the ED claimed.
“To clean the books, the palm oil consumed was shown as sold to bogus buyers, while fictitious purchases of milk and ghee and fictitious sales of by-products such as skimmed milk were recorded to project a genuine dairy operation,” the agency said.
According to the ED, payments made through banking channels for the alleged fictitious purchases were returned in cash through hawala channels.
The cash was then used to fund the purported bogus palm-oil buyers, pay commissions to the front dairies and make payments to other persons allegedly connected with the fraud, the ED said.
The money laundering case stems from an FIR filed by the Andhra Pradesh Police’s Tirupati East Police Station and two chargesheets.
The documents allege a criminal conspiracy to supply adulterated ghee to the TTD for preparing the sacred Lord Venkateswara Laddu Prasadam, cheating the temple body, endangering public health and generating huge unlawful gains.
The ED conducted searches across multiple states in the case in June and arrested Vipin Jain and Mangla.
(PTI News)
