Amid tainted ghee row, Tirupati devotee finds tobacco in laddu: Report
A resident of Khammam district has said she visited the temple on Sep 19, and after returning home, found tobacco wrapped in paper inside the laddu
In the latest twist in the Tirupati laddu saga, a woman devotee has claimed that she found tobacco wrapped in paper inside a laddu that was given to her as prasadam at the Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirupati on September 19.
A resident of Khammam district, Donthu Padmavati, said she visited the temple in Tirupati on September 19, and took the prasadam home to share it with her family and friends.
She said as she was about to distribute the laddu, she was “horrified to find pieces of tobacco wrapped in a small paper”, according to a report in India Today.
“The prasadam is supposed to be sacred, and to find such contamination is heart-breaking,” she was quoted as saying.
Controversy about contaminated ghee
This new allegation, coming after the recent controversy over contaminated ghee being used to prepare the famous laddus, has sent fresh shockwaves among devotees.
The Andhra Pradesh government had announced an investigation into the claims about contaminated ghee being used after the results of a lab report were made public. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) also issued notice to a supplier of ghee from Tamil Nadu.
The latest revelation about tobacco in the laddu brings into focus the quality-control measures being followed by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the trust that is responsible for managing the temple.