Tirupati Laddu Row Hearing in Supreme Court: An independent SIT will now investigate the Tirupati Laddu Prasad case. The Supreme Court has constituted a new investigation team in view of the questions being raised regarding the SIT constituted by the Andhra Pradesh government. This investigation team will have 2 CBI officers, 2 officers from Andhra Pradesh Police and one officer from Food Standard and Safety Authority i.e. FSSAI. The investigation will be monitored by the CBI Director.
During the previous Jagan Mohan Reddy government of Andhra Pradesh, there were allegations of adulteration in the Prasad being offered in Tirupati Balaji Temple, the center of faith of crores of devotees around the world. This allegation was made by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. He had said that adulteration of animal fat has been found in the ghee being used in Prasad. As soon as this matter came to light, there was deep anger among the people. Later, many petitions were filed in the Supreme Court regarding this matter.
This allegation was made against CM during the hearing
Y.V., former chairman of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Trust and a close relative of former Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy. In the petition by Subba Reddy and former Union Minister Subramanian Swamy, questions were raised that Chandrababu Naidu gave the statement for political gain even before the investigation was completed. He said that the four tankers of ghee that were sent to the National Dairy Development Board for testing were not used in making Prasad.
Solicitor General told the state government’s SIT to be appropriate
Amidst the questions being raised regarding the impartiality of the state government, the Supreme Court had asked the Central Government whether the SIT formed by the state government should be allowed to investigate or this responsibility should be given to some other organization. Responding to this, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that all the officers in the SIT of the state government are spotless and good. They should be allowed to investigate. For better investigation, the job of monitoring them should be handed over to a senior central police officer.
Kapil Sibal opposed the suggestion of Solicitor General
Y.V. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Subba Reddy, opposed this suggestion. His demand was that the Supreme Court should form a SIT on its behalf. Ultimately Justice B.R. Gavai and K.V. Vishwanathan’s bench said that he is forming a SIT. In this, two officers will be from CBI, two will be from Andhra Pradesh Police and one officer will be from FSSAI. The court said that the names of Andhra Pradesh Police officers in the SIT will be decided by the Andhra Pradesh government, while the FSSAI officers will be selected by the FSSAI Chairman. The court said that FSSAI is an expert body in matters of food adulteration. In such a situation, the investigation will be better with the presence of one of its officers.
If anyone faces any problem due to this investigation in future, they can come back here – Supreme Court
With this order the Supreme Court has settled the matter. This means that no report will come to the Supreme Court or the State Government in future. The SIT will conduct an independent investigation and if there is a need to prosecute anyone on the basis of the investigation, it will file a charge sheet in the lower court. The Supreme Court has said that if anyone has any problem regarding this investigation in future, then he can knock on its door again.
