Ramar Pillai sentenced to 3 years in prison

Ramar Pillai, who shot to fame around two decades ago after claiming to have developed an herbal alternative to petrol, has been sentenced to 3 years of Rigorous Imprisonment by a court in Chennai. He was facing trial in a cheating case filed by the CBI. Along with Ramar, four of his associates - R Venudevi, S Chinnasamy, R Rajasegaran and S K Bharat, have also been sent to prison.

Back in 1996, Ramar Pillai had come up with a bio fuel that he claimed to be a cheaper and more viable alternative to petrol. Within a month, country's leading institutes like IIT Madras and Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun rubbished his claims. However, Ramar Pillai went on to open multiple retail outlets in the city and started selling 'Ramar Bio Fuel'. Priced at Rs. 10 to Rs. 15 per litre, the alternative fuel was much cheaper than petrol, which was at that time priced around Rs. 35 per litre.

CBI filed a case against Ramar and he was arrested in the year 2000 on charges of buying organic chemicals and then mixing them with additives to develop the so-called herbal fuel. However Pillai came back with yet another 'invention' in 2010. He had changed his name to Ponnupillai Ramar, while the new fuel was now called Velar Bio Hydrocarbon Fuel.

But owing to his earlier image, no one really paid attention to his new claim. Meanwhile, the CBI filed case dragged on in court. The final decision was penned down on Wednesday, 12 October. Along with the aforementioned jail term, the court has also imposed a fine of Rs. 30,000 on the team (Rs. 6,000 each).

Source: Times of India