Hansraj Ahir, the man who exposed the coal scam (Profile)

He is both feared and revered - Hansraj G. Ahir, the soft-spoken Lok Sabha member from Chandrapur in Vidarbha, can be persistent when it comes to exposing scams.

He blew the whistle on the coal mining scam and sought details on the various dark deals on it, but was stone-walled at various levels, including the then Prime Minister's Office.

But Ahir did not lose heart.

Currently in his fourth-term as Lok Sabha member, Ahir took help of Prakash Javadekar, another Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP, and moved the Central Vigilance Commission to inquire into the incident in early 2012.

A few months later, it was only after the CVC ordered a CBI inquiry into the scam that its ramifications came to light and it hit bigwigs in various sectors. Consequently, the UPA paid a heavy price in terms of the scam's political fallout.

The nation watched as the scam details with the staggering amounts involved tumbled out, and it catapulted into one of the biggest scams to hit the country's political-business landscape.

As in exposing scams, Ahir is equally meticulous and systematic in his parliamentary duties, bagging the Sansad Ratna Award for the Best Parliamentarian in the 15th Lok Sabha.