Tamil Nadu: Two sand smugglers held for attempting to murder tahsildar, her three deputies

Krishnagiri: An operator of an earthmover and a driver of a tipper truck were arrested on Sunday on charge of attempting to murder a tahsildar and her three deputies when they foiled sand smuggling by the duo from Anandur lake at Dadhampatty near Pochampally on Saturday evening.District collector Dinesh Kumar received a complaint about sand smuggling on the lake on Saturday evening. On his orders, Uthangarai tahsildar Rajalakshmi, deputy tahsildars Sahadeva, Nagendran, Shakthi and Jayapal and revenue inspector Rathi went to inspect the site. They found an earthmover loading soil onto a tipper truck parked near the lake. When the officials moved to seize the heavy equipment and the truck, the operator of the earthmover swung its bucket towards the officials to attack and kill them. Rajalakshmi said, "After a long struggle, we managed to turn off the earthmover. But the operator and the driver of the truck escaped." Rajalakshmi informed Pochampally police, who seized the earthmover and the truck. "Using their mobile phone signals, special police located and arrested the duo while they were hiding on a hill next to Tirupattur," Pochampally inspector Gopalakrishnan said. The earthmover operator was identified as Suresh, 35, of Kili Chengampatti, and the tipper truck driver as Thangapalu, 32, of Periyasamy of Sengaluneeepatti. Based on Rajalakshmi's complaint, police registered a case under five sections, including obstructing govt officials from doing their duty, attempting to murder them, using explosives, plundering mineral resources without govt permission and soil theft. The two were produced in court and remanded in judicial custody.