A policeman, Havildar Balaram Sethy, was seriously injured while a patrolling team, of which he was a part, came under attack from mining mafia in Joda on Thursday night.
On the fateful night, a Bolero Jeep No - BR- 0P2A - 7702 parked at the Joda bus-stand was trying to flee towards Bansapani at a high speed as the police patrolling team was approaching. When the police tried to stop the vehicle by overtaking it at Singhania Towers on the Biju Expressway, the culprits attacked the cops and Sethy was injured.
Later, however, the police nabbed the two culprits, who were identified as Md Abdul (21) and Md Alkuma (25), both natives of Ward-4 of the Joda Municipality. Another accused, a native of Bihar, managed to escape. The police seized the Bolero.
On Saturday, police court-forwarded the two arrested persons.
Sources revealed that previously rampant mining theft was going on in the Joda Mining Circle by a racket controlled from outside the State. The accused are suspected to be members of an inter-State mining mafia.