Supreme Court refuses to move Tirupati laddu ghee trial out of Andhra Pradesh

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to move the trial in the Tirupati laddu ghee adulteration case out of Andhra Pradesh, rejecting a plea that the state’s top leaders had poisoned the atmosphere for a fair hearing.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a criminal transfer petition filed by Machindra Shantaram Lanke and M/s Malganga Milk and Agro Products. “We are not inclined to transfer the trial. Dismissed,” the bench said.

Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, for the petitioners, asked for the trial to be shifted to a neighbouring state. He argued that statements by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan had created a hostile environment and undermined fair prosecution. Most of the accused, he said, were from north India, and a forensic report had ruled out animal fat in the ghee.

The bench was not persuaded. It said no case was made out for shifting the proceedings at this stage, pointing out that “there are a number of witnesses who are from the state” and that the investigation had been carried out by a special investigation team the Supreme Court itself had set up. The court had already “silenced them all with our order”, it observed, and said the petitioners could return if a similar problem arose.

How the case began

The row broke out when Mr Naidu alleged that animal fat had been used in laddus made at the Tirumala temple during the previous YSRCP government led by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. The YSRCP called the charge politically motivated, while the TDP circulated a laboratory report backing it.

The state set up its own SIT on 26 September 2024. The Supreme Court later replaced it with an independent team of two CBI officers, two Andhra Pradesh police officers and a senior FSSAI official, working under the supervision of the CBI director. The trial will now continue in Andhra Pradesh.