Another Manjunath, Another Excuse
BEWARE! Would be civil servants. Yashwant Sonawane, the addl. collector of Malegaon was burnt alive by oil mafia on Jan 25. Charge against him? He had challenged the might of the powerful oil mafia. Prime culprit Popat Shinde had been booked for theft and pilferage of kerosene oil and FIR lodged as early as 2001. Nexus between politicians, police and the oil mafia was exposed by Sonawane. The culprits have alleged that Sonavane's driver and assistant were regularly paid Rs. 2,000/- per month to look the other way. Though both of them were present with Sonavane when he was charred to death, they have pleaded ignorance about the crime. How shameful! or it is the fear of mafia? ACCORDING to estimates, pilferage of kerosene oil is a Rs. 10,000 crore industry. Four to five thousand kiloliters of oil or about 35% of the allocation to BPL families is annually pilfered or resold in the market for being much cheaper than petrol, almost 75% cheaper. This is brought back into circulation by a...