One of India’s holiest temples, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam’s, has found itself embroiled in a major scam. For five years, a dairy company supplied fake ghee worth nearly ₹250 crore to the temple, amounting to 68 lakh kg. The ghee was used to prepare the famous Tirupati Laddu prasadam that is distributed to millions of devotees every year. Let’s see what happened and why this matters.
Butter: What Really Occurred
A company called Bhole Baba Organic Dairy in Uttarakhand was to supply pure cow ghee to the temple.However, the company never purchased actual milk or butter. As an alternative, it prepared artificial ghee with inexpensive oils and animal fat.
This fake ghee was sent to the temple from 2019 to 2024-almost five years.
Even after the blacklisting of the company in 2022, it continued cheating by using other dairy firms’ names such as Vyshnavi Dairy, Mal Ganga Dairy, and AR Dairy Foods. In one shocking case, ghee that was rejected for being adulterated was taken back, repacked and sold to TTD again.
Why This Is So Serious
Faith Was Betrayed The Tirupati temple is a sacred place in India. Laddu is not just food — it’s prasadam, a holy offering. Supplying fake ghee is a huge insult to devotees’ faith.
Health Risks
Adulterated ghee contains harmful chemicals and animal fat, which could have serious health consequences as thousands of people eat the laddus every day.
Money Lost
This is a scam worth ₹250 crore. That’s a lot of money missing, and all in the name of corruption. System Failure It means that the mechanism of quality checks and audits at TTD was weak. Nobody detected the fraud in five years continuously until the CBI intervened. What Went Wrong No proper background check of the supplier. Documents presented were not checked for authenticity. There is a lack of regular quality testing of ghee. The temple relied too much on its supplier.
What Should Be Done Now
- Precautions to avoid such frauds in the future:
- Strict checking of suppliers before giving contracts.
- Regular laboratory testing of ghee and other temple ingredients.
- Random checks at factories and in supply chains.
- Short-term contracts to avoid long-term cheating.
- Food source transparency: Allow the public to know where ingredients originate.
- Strong legal action against the ones responsible.
- What We Can Learn
- Even large and trusted institutions can be hoodwinked.
- As consumers, every time we purchase ghee, we should check the quality and brand.
- The government should enact stricter laws on food safety and ensure more effective enforcement.
- Faith-based institutions should be extra careful because they handle not just money, but the people’s devotion.
Conclusion
The Tirupati fake ghee scam is a sad example of greed and broken trust. Over years, the most sacred offering was being made with fake ghee, duping the temple and millions of devotees. But it is also a wake-up call to improve the systems, ensure honesty, and restore trust in the name of the temple. When faith meets responsibility, devotion becomes stronger; that is what the Tirupati temple must achieve now.
