Sand mafia attacks revenue inspector in Odhisa

Bhubaneswar, July 6 A Revenue Inspector (RI) in Odisha’s Bolangir district was allegedly attacked by sand mafia during an enforcement against loot of minor minerals on Thursday.

The Revenue Officer, identified as Sushant Patel said that the incident occurred near Mushundi village under Salebhata outpost in the district when a joint enforcement squad were escorting three tractors loaded with stones and sands to a local police station for allegedly transporting minor minerals while paying royalty to the government.

As per the instruction of Agalpur Tehsildar Sushree Saroja Behera, the enforcement squad conducted the raid early morning on Thursday and seized two tractors loaded with stones.

On their way to the police station, they caught another tractor loaded with sand. All the three tractors didn’t have required documents to carry the minor minerals, said Patel.

Near Musundhi village, the sand laden tractor tried to flee from the place. When opposed, the tractor driver allegedly made an attempt to run over the squad official, he said.

The RI captured the entire incident in his mobile. The owner of the sand laden tractor attacked RI from the back side, snatched his mobile and put it on fire to destroy the evidence.

A case has been registered against the sand mafia Santosh Kumar Pradhan and he was arrested, said Tophan Bag, sub-divisional police officer (SDPO), Bolangir.

--IANS