Tirupati: In a significant development relating to the ghee adultera-tion case pertaining to Srivari Laddu prasadam, the Sec-ond Additional District Magistrate Court in Tirupati granted three-day police custody to two of the four accused on Monday.

The court had earlier granted five-day Special Investiga-tion Team (SIT) custody for the four accused – Raju Raja-sekaran, Managing Director of AR Dairy in Tamil Nadu, Pomil Jain and Vipin Jain, former directors of Bhole Baba Dairy in Uttarakhand, and Apoorva Vinaykant Chawda, CEO of Vaishnavi Dairy in Tirupati district who were in ju-dicial remand at Tirupati sub-jail on February 13.

At the end of the custody period from February 14 to 18, they were produced before the court and sent back to the jail.

The SIT has later filed a petition seeking the custody of the two accused – Pomil Jain and Apoorva Vinaykant Chawda, in the case again as they need to be questioned on some crucial aspects pertaining to the case. After the arguments last week, the Magistrate has granted the cus-tody of the accused from March 4 to 6.

Needless to say that a five-member SIT led by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing the case that drew nationwide interest. This team is being assisted by additional police officials from Tirupati district. The latest custody of the accused belonging to the Bhole Baba Dairy and Vaishnavi Dairy assumed significance as they may be questioned on how they manipulated the tender docu-ments and sent the tankers to TTD.