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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Oil gang burns collector alive by Satish Nandgaonkar

Oil gang burns collector alive by Satish Nandgaonkar

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published Published on Jan 26, 2011   modified Modified on Jan 26, 2011
In the middle of a debate about corruption in high places, the curse struck in a macabre manner from the base of the pyramid on the eve of the celebration of the republic.

An additional collector was burnt alive in daylight by a gang that sprinkled kerosene on him after the 44-year-old officer caught their aides pilfering fuel from a tanker in Maharashtra’s Nashik today.

The prime suspect, who has a history in crime, is in hospital with burns suffered during the attack.

Additional collector Yashwant Sonawane, known as an honest officer, was on his way back to Malegaon, where he is posted, from Chandwad in the same district where he had gone to verify reports of a strike by onion farmers protesting a steep fall in prices.

When Sonawane approached a place called Panewadi near Manmad, around 250km from Mumbai, at 2.30pm, he spotted one man or more stealing kerosene from a tanker parked behind a dhaba and summoned a supply inspector to take action, a police officer said.

“The man fled. Four men arrived on motorcycles, assaulted him, and burnt him after pouring kerosene on him,” the officer added.

Sonawane is survived by his wife and two children. A measure of his popularity was discernible in Malegaon where shops downed shutters as soon as word of the murder reached the town.

Some sources said the man was trying to steal petrol, not kerosene. The spot is not too far from a Bharat Petroleum fuel depot.

Whether the booty was petrol or kerosene, the area is known for rackets that thrive on oil adulteration or pilfering — a menace that springs around most oil hubs in the country.

Adulterated fuel, cheaper but the fumes of which cause several diseases, is made by mixing pilfered petroleum products and naphtha. Such fuel is a curse in Calcutta, too, where it goes by the name kata tel and poisons the atmosphere. Despite a high court order banning kata tel, oil pilferage and mixing continues in the city.

Nashik inspector-general Uddhav Kamble said Sonawane stopped when he spotted tankers parked suspiciously behind the dhaba. He found that employees of Popat Shinde, who has a criminal record, were stealing the fuel.

“The employees phoned Shinde who came with more men and assaulted Sonawane and burnt him alive after dousing him with kerosene. Six to seven people were involved in the incident and we have arrested five. Shinde himself suffered 70 per cent burns and is in the hospital in a critical state,” Kamble told The Telegraph over the phone.

NCP leader and Nashik’s guardian minister Chhagan Bhujbal’s son Pankaj is the sitting MLA of the constituency, while nephew Sameer Bhujbal is the MP from the region.

Sameer Bhujbal said Sonawane tried to capture the crime on his mobile and called some officials to the spot to take action.

A prominent railway junction, Manmad is one of the largest warehousing hubs in India and a key oil distribution centre in Maharashtra where hundreds of transporters ply daily. Several oil companies have distribution depots in the area.

Admitting that oil adulteration rackets flourish at Panewadi, through which over 800 tankers pass every day, Sameer Bhujbal said: “After Pankaj became the MLA, he has been pressuring the local administration to take stringent action. Popat Shinde had been prosecuted twice in the recent past (2009 and 2010). He had lost his wife recently. It is possible that another raid on his business may have frustrated him and in that mental state, he tried to do this.”

The administration of chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, who took over recently after the Adarsh corruption scandal ousted Ashok Chavan, is thinking of trying the accused under a stringent act meant to combat organised crime.

Chavan said: “Such an attack on an efficient government officer while he was discharging his duty is shocking and equally infuriating. I have directed the authorities to conduct a thorough probe and take stern action.”

Late in the evening, Chhagan Bhujbal reached Manmad and announced financial assistance of Rs 25 lakh to Sonawane’s family. “He would be treated as a martyr. His existing salary would continue and the government will also employ one person from the family,” he said.

Comparisons could be drawn with the murder of 27-year-old Shanmughan Manjunath, an IIM Lucknow graduate employed with Indian Oil Corporation, who was killed when he tried to seal two petrol pumps selling adulterated fuel in November 2005 in Uttar Pradesh.

Similarly, 30-year-old IIT Kanpur engineer Satyendra Dubey, a project director with the National Highways Authority of India, was murdered in Bihar when he tried to expose corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral highway project.

The Telegraph, 26 January, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110126/jsp/frontpage/story_13494770.jsp


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