Tussle over sand mining FIR
2 min readPatna: Officials of the mines department and the Rohtas police are engaged in legal wrangling after an FIR was lodged against a mines inspector for allegedly being hand-in-glove with the illegal sand mining and overloading mafia.
The station house officer of Dalmianagar police station Sudhir Kumar lodged an FIR against the mines inspector of Rohtas, Dharamveer Kumar, and five others after a raid at a check post near Makrain Chowk in Rohtas in the wee hours of Thursday.
The accused were booked under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 467 (forgery), 384 (extortion) and 120 (b) (conspiracy) of the IPC. SHO Sudhir said the overloaded trucks carrying sand were allowed to pass the check post and issued forged challans.
During the raid, the police team recovered forged letterhead, seal of the check post, pad, Rs 300 cash, two motorcycles besides other documents. Those involved in illegally collecting money, however, managed to escape in the darkness.
Sudhir said the overloaded trucks were allowed to cross the check post with the tacit support of the mines inspector of the area. The police had earlier drawn attention of the mines department officials towards loss of revenue but in vain.
In addition, joint teams of the district officials and the police conducted raids at illegal ghats on the banks of river Sone in Dalmianagar, Kargahar and Bikramganj police station areas and seized 55 overloaded trucks – 40 under Dehri sub-division and 14 under Bikramganj sub-division respectively – on Sunday.
Rohtas motor vehicle inspector Mritunjay Kumar said an overloaded truck with 12-wheels has to pay penalty of Rs 30,000, while a tractor is issued a challan to pay Rs 18,000 as fine for violating the prescribed rules. Rohtas district mines officer Sanjay Kumar admitted that an FIR has been lodged against the mines inspector and some others. Those made accused in the FIR included Pankaj Kumar, the managing director of Aditya Multicom, Ajay Singh, Hiralal Yadav and Vinod Singh.
Mines inspector Dharamveer, however, denied the charges and said the SHO lodged the FIR as he had written to his seniors about the alleged involvement of police in illegal transportation of sand in the district. “This is a result of personal vendetta. I have nothing to say on the issue. If the police have lodged an FIR let them do their work,” he said, adding that everybody was aware of police action against illegal mining and transportation.
Courtesy: The Telegraph
