8 sand mafia members booked for youth’s murder in Maharashtra

AURANGABAD: Four days after a youth succumbed to the injuries sustained during an assault by alleged members of sand mafia, Parbhani police have booked eight suspects on charges of murder, unlawful assembly and rioting.
According to police, the 26-year-old deceased Madhav Shinde’s mother is a gram panchayat member. “The incident has aconnection with the Ravrajur village in Palam tehsil of Parbhani district where some people bagged a contract for sand mining around 10 days back,” a police officer said.
Gangakhed police station’s assistant inspector Sunil Mane told TOI the youth had objected to alleged illegal sand lifting from un-auctioned portions of the Godavari river.
The officer, citing the complaint on record, said on the night of March 24 Shinde was picked up by two suspects from the bus stand area where he had gone to drink alcohol. The suspects took him to the sand belt and brutally thrashed him.
The incident left him with multiple bone fractures, including breaking of his thigh bone. After the youth fell unconscious, the suspects took him to Nanded district and got him admitted to a private hospital and claimed that the youth had met with an accident.
Police said that the private hospital failed to alert the local area police station and it was only after the youth died on the evening of March 25, a death MLC was sent to Shivaji Nagar police station in Nanded. “We learnt about the death of the youth, only after Nanded police alerted us about it,” Mane said.