While serving as Muzaffarnagar’s district social welfare officer, Rinkoo Singh Rahee investigated alleged irregularities in state-funded scholarships and other welfare programs. The department distributed more than ₹40 crore annually, while Rahee said ₹60–70 crore had been allocated in 2008–09 and that substantial sums were unaccounted for. His Right to Information application, filed on 28 November 2007, was not answered within the statutory 30-day period; in 2009, the Central Information Commission ordered the public information officer to release some of the requested material.
On 26 March 2009, armed attackers shot Rahee six times while he was playing badminton, severely damaging his jaw and blinding one eye. Police arrested nine people, including welfare-department assistant accountant Ashok Kashyap and Samajwadi Party figure Mukesh Chaudhary, alleging that departmental grievances and disputed scholarship decisions motivated the attack. A subsequent inquiry led by social-welfare officials reportedly found missing records, accounting discrepancies across schemes, and approximately ₹10 crore in alleged 2009 embezzlement. Rahee later said authorities retaliated against him, including attempts to remove him from a 2012 hunger strike and place him in psychiatric care. The episode became a prominent example of the risks faced by Indian officials challenging entrenched welfare corruption, although the supplied account does not establish final convictions for every allegation.
