What's government doing to stop killing of officials by sand mafia, asks Madhya Pradesh high court

BHOPAL/JABALPUR: Madhya Pradesh high court has sought to know from state govt what steps are being taken to prevent illegal sand mining and killing of govt employees.

A police officer and a patwari have been killed by the sand mafia in Shahdol district in the last six months.

Ten days ago, ASI Mahendra Bagri was crushed to death under a tractor in Beohari, and on Nov 25 last year, patwari Prashann Singh, an ex-Serviceman, was killed the same way in Deolond region. The two sites are barely 20km apart.

Govt counsel Pradeep Gupta told the court that a report has been sought on the matter from Shahdol collector and SP.

HC seeks info on steps taken against illegal sand mining

While hearing a bail application by the accused in the killing of the patwari, the bench of Justice A K Paliwal asked the govt counsel to furnish information on steps being taken by the administration and police to prevent illegal sand mining and killing of innocent govt servants by the mining mafia.

The court deferred by two weeks hearing on the bail application of accused Shubham Vishwakarma and Anuj Kol in the case of the patwari's killing. Beohari subdivisional police officer Ravi Prakash Kol and the then Beohari TI Raj Kumar Mishra were present in court during the hearing. Vishwakarma and Kol had moved high court for bail after their application was turned down by the district court.

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