Suspected sand mafia attacked Government officials at two places in the State on. As many as six persons were injured in these incidents reported from Shajapur and Ratlam districts. Smugglers attacked officials who were inspecting illegal excavation of sand from Nevaj river near Banka Khedi village in Shajapur district on Wednesday.
The officials visited the spot following a complaint of illegal mining received on the Chief Minister's helpline, said mining inspector Reena Pathak, who led the team. They found five tractor-trolleys which were excavating sand from the riverbed, Pathak said. The miscreants pelted them with stones and attacked them with laathis.
Home Guards Manohar Rathore, Badrilal and Radheshyam were injured. They were admitted to a hospital at Akodia town. A case was filed against 21 people but nobody has been arrested yet, Pathak said. In the other incident, the sand smugglers attacked three 'patwaris' (revenue officials) on Tuesday night near village Nerukhedi.
Acting on a tip-off, Jaora sub-divisional magistrate Satish Kumar had asked the local tehsildar and patwaris to stop illegal mining of sand from Chambal river near Nerukhedi. District patwari association chief Madanlal Kataria said that the men who were mining the sand hurled stones at the officials. Patwaris Nandkishore Pal, Dinesh Patidar and Ramchandra Ninama suffered injuries.
Pal, who was injured seriously, was taken to district hospital at Ratlam. The other two were taken to Jaora. After getting information about the attack, a police team from Ringnod reached the spot and seized five JCB machines and four tractor-trolleys. Superintendent of Police Avinash Sharma said a case has been registered against nine men who were identified and a few unknown others for attempt to murder and other offences. No arrest has been made yet.