TTD ghee adulteration case: ED raids 15 locations across 6 states, seizes Rs 60 lakh

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at 15 locations across 6 states in connection with the alleged Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) ghee adulteration fraud case on Wednesday.The raids were carried out in Maharashtra's Ahilyanagar and Mumbai, Rajasthan's Bikaner, Uttarakhand's Dehradun and Roorkee, Tamil Nadu's Dindigul, Andhra Pradesh's Guntur, and Delhi, according to news agency PTI.According to the agency, cash worth Rs 60 lakh was seized during the day-long operation.The ED said the searches also unearthed details of investments of Proceeds of Crime (PoC) in properties valued at over Rs 45 crore. Information regarding several immovable properties allegedly held in the names of the accused persons and their family members was also gathered.In a statement, the agency said its Hyderabad Zonal Office conducted searches at the residential and office premises of Pomil Jain, Vipin Jain, Raju Rajasekaran, Rajesh Mansukhlal Chavda, Apurva Vinaykanth Chavda, Machindra Shantaram Lanke, Ajay Kumar Sugandh, Mahesh Kumar Rohira and Ashish Agarwal.The operation also covered the dairy plants of AR Dairy Food Pvt Ltd in Dindigul, Malganga Milk and Agro Products Pvt Ltd in Ahilyanagar, and Bhole Baba Organic Dairy Milk Pvt Ltd in Roorkee.Various incriminating documents were seized during the searches. The ED said these documents indicate the use of a complex network of legal entities to facilitate bogus sale and purchase transactions aimed at concealing and layering the Proceeds of Crime.The federal agency initiated its investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, based on a First Information Report (FIR) registered against AR Dairy Food Pvt Ltd and others. The accused are alleged to have conspired with certain TTD officials to commit criminal breach of trust and cheating, causing wrongful loss to the temple body by supplying adulterated ghee.ED said its investigation conducted so far has revealed that the "Proceeds of Crime generated through the supply of adulterated ghee to TTD were subsequently invested in immovable properties through a complex web of interconnected legal entities and business concerns to conceal the illicit origin of funds."