Tirupati Laddu Row | CBI Director Approaches Supreme Court Against AP HC Observation That Officer Outside SIT Was Given Investigation

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Friday the plea by the CBI Director challenging the Andhra Pradesh High Court's order, which held that he had violated the Apex Court's directions by appointing an officer outside the SIT to probe allegations of adulterated ghee in Tirumala Tirupati Temple's prasadam.When the matter was taken by a bench of CJI BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran today, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta requested that the matter be kept for hearing on another day as the investigation is still ongoing. Considering the same, the bench agreed to list it for Friday. Justice Harinath N of the High Court held that one of the SIT members, J Venkat Rao, was not specifically named as an Officer representing the State in the SIT constituted in pursuance of the Supreme Court's directions. Therefore, the High Court held that J Venkat Rao could not be included in the SIT and he cannot carry out the investigation.The High Court was hearing a plea by one Kaduru Chinnappanna, who claimed that he received notices from the Investigating Officer J Venkat Rao to appear, wherein he was "compelled, forced and intimidated to record various scripted false statements" before the SIT and the proceedings were recorded by a Video Camera. It was submitted that the petitioner was "forced to give statements to the dictates" of Respondent no. 10. The plea sought a direction for free and fair investigation by the SIT.He argued that although Rao was not a member of SIT, however, has been repeatedly issuing notice(s) to the petitioner calling upon him to appear as a witness before the SIT office at Tirupati for the purpose of investigation. It was in 2024 that the Supreme Court constituted an independent Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the allegations stating that the SIT will consist of two officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) who will be nominated by the CBI director, two officers of the Andhra Pradesh State Police to be nominated by the State Government and a senior official of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).Case Details: THE DIRECTOR, CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION AND ORS. Versus KADURU CHINNAPPANNA AND ORS. SLP(Crl) No. 12653/2025

Tirupati Laddu Row | CBI Director Approaches Supreme Court Against AP HC Observation That Officer Outside SIT Was Given Investigation

Anmol Kaur Bawa

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