Tirupati prasadam row: IPS officer to head SIT probe appointed by Andhra government
Tirupati Ladoo
Indian Police Service(IPS) officer Sarvashresth Tripathi has been appointed as the head of theSpecial Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the adulteration of the prasadam (offering) at the Tirupati temple, the Andhra Pradesh government confirmed on Tuesday (Sep 24).
The laddus given to the devotees as an offering at the temple have been alleged to contain animal fats, including beef tallow, which has caused uproar amongst the Hindu community across the country.
Tripathi will be joined by two more senior IPS officers,Gopinath Jetty,range deputy inspector general of police in Visakhapatnam andHarshavardhan Raju,district superintendent of police, Kadapa.
Tripathi, a 2006-batch IPS officer of the Andhra cadre is currently posted in Guntur as the inspector general of police. He had also worked in the recent assembly elections where the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) emerged victorious in an alliance with the Jana Sena Party.
The SIT will reportedly not only look into circumstances that led to adulteration in the prasadam but also investigateinto other irregularities that have allegedly taken place during the previous regime in the last five years.
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What is thecontroversy?
The controversy erupted after CM Chandrababu Naidu last week alleged that theJagan Mohan Reddy-led government allowed the use of substandard ingredients in the preparation of laddus, which included animal fat and fish oil.
On Thursday (Sep 19), a lab report fromGujarat’s NDDB CALF lab confirmed the presence of lard, beef tallow and fish oil in ghee samples. The report, dated July 16, 2024, was presented by TDP spokesperson Anam Venkata Ramana Reddy in a press conference.
Some new reports have also claimed that devotees foundtobacco in the prasadam offered to them. One such devotee namedDonthu Padmavati, a resident of Khammam district said she discovered tobacco in the laddu when she went back home to share it with family and neighbours.
On Monday (Sep 23), apurification ritual was carried out in the temple to rid of the negative energies.The ritual called the Mahashanti Yagam was performed in strict accordance with the shastras (manual with rules) with an executive officer of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), Shamala Rao, along with other officials and priests present.
(With inputs from agencies)