Ganesh Kendale
NEW DELHI: The Andhra Pradesh government on Tuesday suspended the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the Tirupati laddu ‘prasadam’ case till October 3.
The government has said the decision has been taken in the view of an ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court as it would serve as a “precautionary measure” to ensure probe’s integrity.
“SIT investigation will be suspended until October 3, due to the ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court.The SIT was formed to investigate the Tirupati Laddu prasadam case and the suspension is a precautionary measure to ensure the investigation’s integrity,” Andhra Pradesh director general of police (DGP), Dwaraka Tirumala Rao was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The top court on Monday slammed the CM N Chandrababu Naidu-led Andhra Pradesh for going public with his allegation of adulterated prasadam without any basis and hurting the sentiments of crores of devotees.
The court observed that politics should be kept out of the issue of faith and there was nothing prima facie to prove that contaminated ghee was used to make laddus at Tirumala Tirupati temple.
Hearing a batch of four petitions, including one filed by Subramanian Swamy, a bench of Justices BR Gavai and K V Viswanathan said prasadam was not sent for test and repeatedly asked the state and Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) to show evidence that contaminated ghee was used to make laddus. The court said according to the report, a sam ple of rejected ghee was tested.
“There are some disclaimers in the lab report. It is not clear at all. It says rejected ghee was subjected to the test. If you yourself have ordered an investigation, what was the need to go to the press? The report came in July and the statement was made in September. The report says that was not the material used for prasadam,” the bench said at the outset.
It sought answers from the state govt and TTD on how they came to the conclusion that contaminated ghee was used to make the laddus. Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for TTD, said the test was conducted after devotees complained about the change in taste and recounted the events leading to the controversy.
