New Delhi. The investigation into the case of adulteration of animal fat and fish oil in the Laddu Prasadam of Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple i.e. Tirupati Temple of Andhra Pradesh will be under the supervision of the Director of CBI. This matter was heard in the Supreme Court on Friday. The bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice KV Vishwanathan has ordered to form a Special Investigation Team i.e. SIT for the investigation. This committee will have two officers each from CBI and State Police and also an officer from Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, FSSAI. The investigation will be supervised by the CBI Director.
Earlier, in the October 1 hearing, Andhra Police had stopped the SIT investigation into the case. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared on behalf of the Central Government, Mukul Rohatgi on behalf of the State Government, Siddharth Luthra on behalf of Tirupati Temple and Kapil Sibal appeared on behalf of former Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam President YV Subbareddy. During the hearing, the court said – Our order should not be seen as a question on the independence or impartiality of the State SIT members. We are forming a new SIT only considering the sentiments of crores of people who have faith in God. It is noteworthy that Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had alleged on September 18 that during Jagan Mohan’s government, animal fat and fish oil were mixed in the ghee made for laddus. This dispute has been going on since then.