Tirupati: The four accused in the adulteration of ghee used in Srivari laddu prasadam were taken into police custody on Friday. The Second Additional District Magistrate Court in Tirupati granted five-day police custody on Thursday, following which the accused were taken from Tirupati sub-jail for questioning.

The accused were first taken to Ruia Hospital for medical tests before being shifted to the transit Special Investigation Team (SIT) office at Bhudevi Complex in Alipiri. The four individuals in custody include A2-Raju Rajasekharan, Managing Director of AR Dairy in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu; A3 and A4-Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain, directors of Bhole Baba Organic Dairy in Roorkee, Uttarakhand; and A5-Apoorva Vinaykanth Chavda, CEO of Vaishnavi Dairy Specialties Limited in Penumaka, Pellakur Mandal, Tirupati district.

A five-member SIT, led by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), is being supported by additional police officials from Tirupati district.

These officials have been interrogating the accused which is reportedly being overseen by Tirupati Additional SP J Venkata Rao, who is probing various aspects of the case. The investigation is expected to focus on key issues such as who instructed the adulteration of ghee, how the bid documents were manipulated, and under whose direction fraudulent figures were incorporated into the company’s Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) returns to secure the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) contract among other aspects.

Meanwhile, the SIT has maintained secrecy regarding A1, refraining from disclosing details about this individual.

Reports suggest that marketing officials of TTD and lab experts from AR Dairy are also being questioned at the SIT office. Based on their findings, the SIT may frame charges against A1 and is preparing to interrogate former senior officials of TTD in the coming days.