Former Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president PS Prasanth was among three people booked by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Kerala Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) over alleged irregularities in the procurement and supply of Milma ghee to Sabarimala temple, an officer said.
The FIR, filed before a Vigilance court in Kollam, names former TDB member A Ajikumar and former administrative officer Murari Babu as the other accused. Babu died at a private hospital in Kochi on June 13 after prolonged medical issues.
Prasanth and Ajikumar have also been booked by a separate Kerala Police SIT in the case involving alleged theft and misappropriation of gold from Sabarimala temple assets. They have been arrested and are currently in custody in that case.
The FIR, registered late Thursday against senior members of the previous TDB governing body, came two days after a Kerala high court division bench ordered the formation of the SIT under MJ Sojan, superintendent of police, Ernakulam Special Cell, VACB.
The court’s order followed reports by Sabarimala Special Commissioner R Jayakrishnan and the TDB’s chief vigilance and security officer flagging alleged irregularities in the procurement of ghee from Milma, including the bypassing of standard tender procedures and concerns over the quality of the product supplied.
The ghee was primarily procured to prepare aravana payasam, a traditional Sabarimala offering made with red (matta) rice, jaggery and ghee.
{{/usCountry}}The ghee was primarily procured to prepare aravana payasam, a traditional Sabarimala offering made with red (matta) rice, jaggery and ghee.
{{/usCountry}}The vigilance officer told the high court that TDB officials abandoned an e-tender process to favour Milma, the state milk cooperative, based on a recommendation by then administrative officer Murari Babu that its ghee was of superior quality and would require a lower quantity.
The TDB, then headed by Prasanth, subsequently approved the purchase of 1.65 lakh litres of ghee from Milma at ₹510 per litre for the 2025-26 pilgrimage season.
The procurement went ahead despite objections from the Special Commissioner over the abandonment of the e-tender process. The court was told that Milma’s ghee was procured at a higher price, while the lowest bidder in the e-tender had quoted ₹369 per litre for the same quality.
The report said the TDB could have saved ₹2.27 crore if the lowest bidder had been selected.
The Special Commissioner’s report also questioned whether the entire 1.65 lakh litres ordered actually reached the temple, raising the possibility of misappropriation. It pointed to alleged discrepancies in procurement, transportation and accounting records.
Milma chairman KS Mani, however, denied any lapses in the quality of the ghee supplied to Sabarimala.
“Genuine, premium-quality ghee was dispatched from Milma to Sabarimala, packed in sealed 15 kg tins, making in-transit alteration or tampering impossible,” Mani told reporters on August 3. He also welcomed a probe into the matter.
The high court directed the SIT to conduct the investigation “with utmost diligence and vigour” and examine all issues raised in the Special Commissioner’s report. It also asked the team to submit a progress report within a month.
A vigilance team led by Sojan is separately probing alleged criminal misappropriation of proceeds from the sale of ‘Adiya Shishtam Ghee’ to devotees at Sabarimala. The sacred leftover ghee from the ‘neyyabhishekam’ ceremony is packed in 100-gram packets and sold for ₹100 each.