Sand mafia attacks revenue dept team in Maharashtra's Beed; two accused held

Beed, Nov 13 (PTI) Sand mafia members allegedly assaulted a revenue department team, including a woman official, after it conducted a raid near Ashti town in Maharashtra's Beed district and seized vehicles involved in the illegal mining activity, police said on Thursday.

The incident took place around 5.45 pm on Wednesday, during which the attackers tried to crush an official under a backhoe loader vehicle, but he was rescued by his colleagues in time, the police said, adding that two of the accused have been arrested.

"Acting on a tip-off about illegal mining of sand from the Sina riverbed near Hingani in Ashti taluka, tehsildar Vaishali Patil led a raid with her team members. During the operation, one backhoe loader machine, three tractors, one tractor trolley and 30 brass of sand, collectively worth over Rs 51 lakh, were seized," an official said.

As the revenue department team was transporting the seized items to the tehsil office, a white car blocked their path in Ashti town. Three persons got out of the car and assaulted tehsildar Patil and other staffers in a bid to get back the seized vehicles and material, he said.

One attacker grabbed and pushed talathi Sachin Telang, who was operating the backhoe loader vehicle, while another pushed witness Suraj Kokane. Their third accomplice then drove the loader vehicle directly towards Telang in an attempt to kill him. However, he was saved after other members of the revenue team pulled him to safety, the official said.

Meanwhile, at least four more persons arrived at the site in two cars and used their vehicles to block the seized tractors. In the ensuing chaos, the attackers managed to forcibly take one seized tractor from talathi Pravin Shinde. The revenue team eventually succeeded in apprehending the backhoe loader vehicle and its driver Mahesh Asawar, according to the police official.

Telang later lodged a complaint at the Ashti police station against the group of assailants, based on which a case was registered against them under charges of assault, criminal intimidation, obstructing a public servant from performing duty, and attempt to murder, he said.

A senior police official from Ashti said two of the accused were arrested and a local court remanded them in police custody till Monday. PTI COR NP