small firm that mostly did work for the bombay municipal corporation two jobs being the construction of sion hospital and sion college after his son chose to open a sanitaryware dealership rather than join the family contractor business desai shut the firm in 2000 that same year retired and welloff he became a bai trustee shankarbhais honesty and dedication is striking says dattatraya mhaiskar a director of irb infrastructure developers a bai member who has known desai since 1960 he volunteered his services to bai for free that does not mean he works halfheartedly once he takes up a responsibility he ensures he sees it to the end taking on the cement industry is the biggest responsibility desai has taken on at the bai desai says he first suspected a cement cartel while in business the cement industry has grown faster than the construction industry how is that possible if the construction industry is the sole consumer of cement he asks and how can you explain such frequent rises in cement prices sometimes several times a month in 2006 on behalf of the bai he filed its first application against cement producers in the monopolies and restrictive trade practices commission which adjudicated on cartels back then that application never came up for hearing and bai members all but gave up hope desai feels at that time the bai let him pursue the case in deference to his age and because his services came for free desai persisted he spoke to whoever would listen around 2007 he started engaging with the competition commission of india which had been formed but was yet to be equipped with powers to probe cartels when it received those powers in may 2009 desai saw an opening in july 2010 the bai filed a sevenvolume 3500page application with the cci that drew from among other things government statistics company annual reports and newspaper clippings it alleged that cartellike behaviour started at the plant level and ended in the marketplace cement companies produced below capacity so that supply always trailed demand then they acted in concert to control dispatches and raise cement prices acting on the complaint the ccis investigative arm confirmed such an operating pattern in its report in may 2011 subsequently the cci board of members heard the bai and cement companies and gave its verdict last month both during the cci investigation and the board hearing desai made himself available several times to the commissions officials the head of one of the 11 accused cement companies speaking on the condition of anonymity says they will appeal to the cci appeals tribunal within two months and if they lose there he adds they will approach the countrys highest court