Sabarimala ghee purchase raises questions: Transport contract given to blacklisted contractor

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Devaswom Vigilance has reported serious irregularities in the purchase of 1.5 lakh litres of ghee from Milma for the preparation of aravana during the last Mandala-Makaravilakku season at Sabarimala.

The decision to purchase the ghee was taken with unusual haste. The Travancore Devaswom Board decided to buy the ghee on the same day Milma officials approached board president P.S. Prasanth and offered to supply it at ₹510 per litre, according to a special vigilance report submitted to the government. Milma officials met Prasanth on June 13, 2025, offering to supply ghee at ₹510 per litre. The decision to purchase it was taken without any discussions, the report said.

Records show that all 1.5 lakh litres supplied by Milma were used for preparing aravana. The vigilance report has found this prima facie suspicious. The ghee storage tanks at Sannidhanam were full at the time. Only 19,800 litres of ghee had been used at Sannidhanam. Despite the availability of sufficient ghee, the decision was taken to purchase the supply from Milma.

The claim that Milma's ghee was of better quality than the ghee brought by devotees was baseless, according to the report. Chandran Pillai, who has been supervising aravana production since 1990, told the investigators that aravana prepared using ghee donated by devotees had better quality.

Ghee supplied by Milma sourced from Pune

The ghee supplied to Sabarimala was not produced by Milma. It was procured from Sonai Dairy in Pune, with 24,970 kg of ghee being purchased from the dairy. To avoid inspection, the same batch number was assigned to all 3,604 tins, the report said.
The contract for transporting the ghee to Sannidhanam was awarded to S.S. Binu, who had been blacklisted by the Devaswom Board. The Devaswom Vigilance had estimated the cost of the contract at ₹2,96,500, but it was awarded for ₹1,80,000.

Letter sent to Home Minister

Devaswom Minister K. Muraleedharan has written to Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala seeking the inclusion of these issues in the investigation by the special investigation team constituted on the directions of the High Court.