A week after the Special Investigation Team (SIT) filed a charge sheet in a Tirupati court in the adulterated ghee case, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) executive officer Anil Kumar Singhal was transferred. Accusations have been leveled against the former YSRCP government in this case.
According to PTI report, Anil Kumar Singhal is a 1993 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, who also served as EO in the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government from May 2017 to October 2020. They have been asked to report to the General Administration Department for further posting. In a government order issued on Sunday (February 1, 2026), it was said that Muddada Ravichandra has been appointed as EO in place of Anil Kumar Singhal.
According to the SIT charge sheet, investigation revealed that during April 2019, with the approval of the then EO, a committee comprising TTD officials and external dairy experts was constituted to amend some of the conditions of the ghee tender. TTD Board approved the recommendation of the Purchase Committee through Resolution No. 371 on February 29, 2020 and accordingly the conditions of ghee tender were relaxed.
Investigation revealed that due to relaxation in the conditions of ghee tender, no cooperative dairy got the tender and only private dairies got the tender. The SIT said relaxation in certain conditions also paved the way for participation of newly established dairies that did not have the required experience or credentials and ultimately compromised the quality of ghee procured by TTD for making laddu prasad.
Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister P. Keshav said at a press conference here on Saturday that the report of ghee samples sent by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam to the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) had clearly indicated the possibility of it being animal fat and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had also cited the same report. Keshav alleged that the evidence before the SIT shows that the adulteration started only after 2019.
