One killed over illegal gypsum trade rivalry

BIKANER:The illegal gypsum trade rivalry took a bloody turn on Friday evening after oneperson was shot dead at Barsalpur village of Kolayat tehsil.Superintendent of police, Raghvendra Suhasa informed that inBarsalpur, Bhurasar village a 500 bigha plot of land was the cause of rivalrybetween two groups. On Friday the atmosphere in the village was tense as boththe parties confronted each other. By evening firing occurred from both thesides. In the firing one Prithvi Singh (50) was severely injured, he later diedat the PBM hospital. From the side of the deceased, Shyam Singh hasfiled a complaint with the local police accusing Mahavir Singh for firing whichcaused the death of Prithvi Singh. Mahavir Singh is incidentally a gunman ofKolayat MLA and senior BJP leader, Devi Singh Bhati. The police has arrestedfour persons in the case. Mahavir Singh is still absconding. A heavy policecontingent has been deployed at the village which is the native place of DeviSingh Bhati. The illegal mining of gypsum is the said to be thecause of the incident. In the Kolayat area many areas are witnessing illegalmining of the gypsum. On condition of anonymity a person associated with thebusiness informed TOI that most of the plaster of Paris factories use theillegal gypsum as the gypsum supplied by the state owned Rajasthan State Minesand Minerals is of inferior quality and expensive. The state loses crores ofrupees annually because of illegal trade ofgypsum.