BRIBES FOR BIOFUEL

On April 7, when officers of the Rajasthan anti-corruption bureau (ACB) raided the residence of Surendra Singh Rathore, the CEO of Rajasthan Biofuel Authority (BFA) and a joint secretary in the rural development department, they unearthed Rs 3.62 crore in cash and details of unaccounted-for assets worth Rs 100 crore. Rathore had earlier been caught red-handed accepting Rs 5 lakh in cash, when apparently he boasted to the ACB officers: “You can’t do anything to me. I run a thousand crore business.”

- Rohit Parihar

But more than the cash, what surprised officials is the extent of corruption in the biofuels sector, deemed a novel concept aimed at reducing the nation’s use of fossil fuels. Rathore himself personifies this, having risen from the post of havildar in the Indian Air Force (IAF) to an office equivalent to the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) in just 15 years. In his defence, Rathore told the court hearing his bail plea that “the cash seized was the collection from the mining and toll business of my son Deependra Singh...and so are the assets”.