The Nilgiri police on Saturday arrested four members of a sand mafia gang for allegedly attacking the Mitrapur Revenue Inspector (RI) while he was on his way to raid a sand quarry in the Sono river bed in Baleswar district.
The arrestees were identified as Ajay Patra, Susanta Das, Malay Behera and Ajay Das, all of village Tundagandira of Nilgiri.
All of them were forwarded to court and later sent to judicial custody when their bail plea was rejected.
However, three more gang members identified as Uttam Bhuyan , Ratnakar Bhuyan and Sanatan Das .are still at large.
According to reports, Revenue Inspector Muktikanta Pradhan was going for a raid on the instructions to Nilgiri Tehsildar Asesh Nayak to the Mitrapur sand quarry after receiving information of illegal sand lifting from river bed , at Pundala and Radhakishorpur despite the ban on lifting with CrPc 144 in force.
But around seven to eight members of the sand mafia gang attacked Pradhan. Getting information, the Tehsildar along with police rescued the RI.
Notably, sand lifting and smuggling by the mafias continued unabated despite the administration ban not only in Sono river bed but in Budhabalanga and Subaranarekha also posing a serious threat to environment and causing a huge loss to the State exchequer.