Hyderabad: As part of an ongoing money laundering probe into the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) ghee adulteration fraud, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) here, has provisionally attached assets worth Rs. 129.85 crore belonging to three companies, their promoters, family members and other related entities under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
This includes Bhole Baba Organic Dairymilk Pvt Ltd, Sri Vyshnavi Dairy Specialities Pvt Ltd, Sukriti Foods Pvt Ltd and their promoters Vipin Jain, Pomil Jain and Kailash Chand Mangla, respectively.
ED investigation was initiated on the basis of an First Information Report (FIR) registered at Tirupati East Police Station alleging criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and corruption in the fraudulent supply of adulterated ghee to TTD.
The predicate agency filed a chargesheet and a supplementary chargesheet before the Special Judge for Special Police Establishment (SPE) and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) cases, Nellore, disclosing a massive criminal conspiracy to supply adulterated ghee to TTD for preparation of the sacred Lord Venkateswara Laddu Prasadam, thereby cheating TTD, endangering public health and generating huge unlawful gains.
Investigation under PMLA has revealed that adulterated ghee worth Rs. 234.5 crore was supplied to TTD by Bhole Baba, directly and through front dairies which bid for TTD tenders in their own names for a commission, while the ghee was actually 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, invoiced as edible oils.
To clean the books, the palm oil so 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.
Payments made through banking channels against the fictitious purchases were returned in cash through hawala channels, and this cash was used to fund the bogus palm-oil buyers, to pay commissions to the front dairies and to pay other persons connected with the fraud.
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Earlier, ED had conducted searches on June 3 at 16 premises in Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh linked to the principal conspirators, front dairies, chemical suppliers and accommodation-entry providers, resulting in seizure/freezing of cash and bank balances of Rs. 2.7 crore.
ED has also arrested Vipin Jain and Kailash Chand Mangla, promoters and directors of Bhole Baba Organic Dairymilk Pvt Ltd and Sukriti Foods Pvt Ltd respectively, who orchestrated the manufacturing of adulterated ghee and its fraudulent supply to TTD. Total attachments in this case, including seizure and freezing under Section 17 of PMLA, amounts to Rs. 132.55 crore so far.
Further investigation is under progress.
