Tirupati Temple Adulterated Ghee Controversy: Subramanian Swamy Moves Supreme Court

Yesterday (September 23, 2024), Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy filed a PIL in the Supreme Court (SC) of India seeking an investigation by a Court-monitored committee into the recent controversy where animal fat was found in Laddu prasadam served at the Tirupati Temple, Andhra Pradesh during the previous YSRCP regime. He also sought direction for a detailed report from the authorities on the forensics of the ghee sample based on which the allegations were made. The petition reads, “In the light of the severe political rebuttal and also in the light of the aggravated sense of hurt in the minds of the crores of worshippers of Lord Venkateshwara, and a propaganda, completely insensitive to the nature of the present fact situation, by leaking to the media houses, the contents of a lab report, the Petitioner prays for a committee under the monitoring of this Court/or under a Retd. Judge of this Hon'ble Court to be formed.” He added, “...the opportunity was seized upon certain individuals to make a political statement out of the said apparent piece of information which was not in the public domain as on the hour of disclosure.” Moreover, Swamy Subramanian also highlighted certain questions regarding the same, which are as follows:

• “Was the sampling done/procured by the lab-testing agency?
• Was the sample of ghee taken from the ghee which was used in the offerings or from the rejected lot of samples?
• Which supplier was concerned with procurement of the said adulterated ghee?
• Whether the said report has scope for a false positive result?
• When was or whether the said ghee procured or rejected after internal testing of the Respondent No.3(TTD)?
• Whether any political intervention should be permissible in releasing such reports and not be the TTD?”

The BJP leader took oh his X (earlier known as Twitter) handle, and posted, “Today I filed a PIL seeking Supreme Court direction to investigate unsubstantiated allegation by CM C.B. Naidu that the Tirupati Tirumala Temple Prasadam were adulterated with meat of animals and other rotten items creating chaos amongst bhaktas.” Earlier, a PIL was filed by President of Hindu Sena Surjit Singh Yadav alleging the same.