How a firm with links to Ramdev’s Ruchi Soya got preferential treatment

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Editor's note: In late November 2020, packaged consumer goods company Ruchi Soya sent a notice to its shareholders about some noteworthy appointments to its board. While yoga guru Ramdev was to be made a director, his brother Ram Bharat was to be the managing director and close aide Acharya Balkrishna was to be redesignated as a director.  A week prior to this announcement, the environment ministry granted clearance to an edible oil pipeline project built by little known Gujarat-based tank storage company BFCL Terminal Pvt. Ltd. The pipeline was built to connect the oil jetty at Kandla port with the firm’s storage facility nearby. From here, the crude edible oil was to be sent to refineries.  Official documents accessed exclusively by The Morning Context show that the firm built this pipeline in violation of the coastal regulation zone, or CRZ, law and was therefore not eligible to receive clearance. For at least two years, official records suggest, the pipeline was not operational since it had no clearance.  And yet, behind closed doors, the environment ministry came up with a new and legally …