NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth Rs 129.85 crore in a money laundering probe into the supply of adulterated ghee to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the body that runs the Tirupati temple and makes its sacred laddu offering, the agency said on Wednesday.
The federal agency has attached assets belonging to Bhole Baba Organic Dairymilk Pvt Ltd, Sri Vyshnavi Dairy Specialities Pvt Ltd, their promoters Vipin Jain and Pomil Jain and family members, as well as Sukriti Foods Pvt Ltd, its promoter Kailash Chand Mangla and his relatives, and other related entities and individuals, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The agency said that the total attachments, including seizures and freezes under Section 17 of the PMLA, now amount to Rs 132.55 crore.
The federal probing agency alleged that adulterated ghee worth Rs 234.5 crore was supplied to TTD by Bhole Baba, both directly and through front dairies that bid for TTD tenders in their own names in return for a commission.
The ghee was actually made at 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, and was invoiced as edible oils, the agency said.
To hide the trail, 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, it said.
The payments made through banking channels for the fictitious purchases were returned in cash via hawala channels, the ED said. The cash was used to fund the bogus palm-oil buyers, pay commissions to the front dairies and pay others connected with the fraud.
The money laundering probe stems from a first information report registered at Tirupati East police station alleging criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and corruption in the supply of adulterated ghee to TTD.
The state police, as the agency investigating the underlying offences, has filed a chargesheet and a supplementary chargesheet before the Special Judge for SPE and ACB cases in Nellore. The filings disclose a large criminal conspiracy to cheat TTD, endanger public health and generate huge illegal gains, the ED said.
The ED had carried out raids on June 3 at 16 premises in Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. The sites were linked to the main conspirators, front dairies, chemical suppliers and providers of accommodation entries, it said. The raids had led to the seizure or freezing of cash and bank balances worth Rs 2.7 crore.
Earlier, the agency had also arrested Vipin Jain, promoter and director of Bhole Baba, and Kailash Chand Mangla, promoter and director of Sukriti Foods, who it said orchestrated the manufacture of the adulterated ghee and its fraudulent supply to TTD.
