Bail is the rule, not the exception; accused's cooperation and absence of evidence of witness tampering justified his release.

ORDER :

K SREENIVASA REDDY, J.

1. These Criminal Petitions, under Section 483 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (for short "the BNSS ‟), have been filed by various accused in Crime No.470 of 2024 of Tirupati East Police Station to grant bail to them in the said crime.

Petitioner in Criminal Petition No.4203 of 2025 is A.5; petitioner in Criminal Petition No.4187 of 2025 in A.3 and the petitioner in Criminal Petition No.4198 of 2025 is A.4, in the aforesaid crime.

2. Basing on a report dated 25.09.2024 lodged by the General Manager (Procurement), T.T. Devasthanams, Tirupati ("the informant‟), the aforesaid crime was registered for the offences under Sections 274 , 275, 316 (5), 318 (3), 318 (4), 61 (2) and 299 read with 49 read with 3 (5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (for brevity " BNS ‟) and Sections 51 and 59 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (FSS Act, 2006), by the Sub Inspector of Police, East police station, Tirupati, against M/s.A.R.Dairy Foods Private Limited, Dindigal, Tamilnadu and others.

3. The allegations in the report dated 25.09.2024 lodged by the informant, in brief, are as follows.

In view of various complaints received from pilgrims on the quality of Laddu Prasadam, the cow ghee procurement process and the quality issues were reviewed in depth, wherein several issues affecting the quality of Laddu Prasadams, were noticed. TTD warned all the suppliers to improve quality of ghee supplied that the sub-standard stocks would be tested outside labs for adulteration and the firm would be blacklisted with suitable penalties if the tests indicate adulteration. Pursuant to the same, all other firms improved the quality of ghee, except M/s. A.R. Dairy Foods Private Limited, Dindigal, Tamilnadu. Supply order was issued in favour of the said firm on 15.05.2024 for supply of 10 lakhs KGs of cow ghee within 1500 KMs radius from Tirumala, and its price of Rs.319.80 ps appears to be unviable and unreasonable for supplying pure ghee. The company supplied four tankers of ghee on 12.06.2024, 20.06.2024, 25.06.2024 and 04.07.2024 respectively, and the same were accepted with the earlier procedure of testing which does not include adulteration testing. Thereafter, a decision was taken to utilize services of outside NABL accredited lab for testing adulteration by tying up with NDDB, CALF Lab, Anand, Gujarat for enforcing quality as per tender conditions, which is for the first time in the TTD. Accordingly, samples were collected from the aforesaid four tankers and sent to NDDB CALF Limited, Anand, confidentially for testing the quality. The testing reports were received on 16.07.2024 and 23.07.2024, wherein it was noticed that there is high level of adulteration of ghee supplied. According to the report, all the samples have vegetable and animal fat based adulterants including LARD. Show-cause notices were issued to the said company and a reply was submitted by the said company to the said show-cause notice. TTD purchases ghee for preparation of Swamivari Laddu and other Prasadams as per the Dittam, and expect values, quality and authenticity, and in view of the above, TTD was disheartened to discover that the ghee supplied by the said company recently did not meet the expected standards. Quality of ghee affects both health and religious sentiments and beliefs of the devotees of Lord Sri Venkateswara. TTD was made to believe by the company that strict quality control measures were maintained by it to ensure that their products meet safety and quality standards, but the results of the samples which were tested were otherwise. The S Value for the sample, as per the report dated 12.07.2024 given by the NDDB Calf Limited, Gujarat is substantially low as compared to the Standard S Value limits as per the method. The company violated the agreement clauses and committed cheating by adulterating ghee. It quoted lowest price for cow ghee and thereby induced TTD to award the Order for 10 lakhs KGs of ghee with them,