Finally, Cops Crack Down On Sand Mafia, 3 Trucks Of Kingpin Seized

Nagpur: The sand mafia has been bleeding state coffers by paying minimal royalty for multiple trips and displaying the same document or its counterfeits when intercepted by revenue or police officials.On Thursday, three sand-laden trucks and a JCB machine were seized in a police ambush on Bharatwada Road when the mafia was dumping the consignment in a water tank. The trucks plying without paying royalty were intercepted by a special team of zonal DCP Niketan Kadam led by assistant inspectors Jeetendra Thakur and Yogesh Mahajan. Nine people, including drivers and cleaners of the truck and JCB operators were nabbed and handed over to Kalamna police.Sources stated a viral video of the sand mafia’s clandestine activity near Bharatwada water tank prompted police commissioner Amitesh Kumar to order a crackdown. “We had been working on intelligence inputs for a week. The gang was plying trucks between 5am and 8am and we laid a trap after zeroing in on the route,” said Kadam, adding all linkages would be probed. “We are analysing the mafia’s modus operandi. We may also act against ghat operators if we unearth irregularities,” said the DCP. TOI has been repeatedly highlighting the growing dominance of sand mafia and their unbridled sway over ghats in Nagpur and Bhandara, where excavation is illegal. To cater to the rising demand for sand in the city and suburbs, the mafia is also smuggling in consignments from Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in overloaded trucks and making multiple trips with fake royalty receipts.The illegally dumped sand near Bharatwada water tank reportedly belongs to one Bhoyar, a mafia kingpin. During interrogation, drivers and operators confessed that several trucks, particularly 16-wheelers, ply with only one royalty but make several trips with the same document. The drivers also confirmed that sand excavated from ghats were of superior quality, but consignments delivered to customers at a premium were mixed with inferior quality sand from Kanhan and Saoner belts in the Bharatwada area. “Payment of royalty permits excavation and transportation of a certain quantity of sand to a fixed destination,” said a police official.Kalamna police registered an offence against nine persons and are learnt to be searching for the owner of the dumped sand, who is considered to be the mastermind of sand smuggling racket in Nagpur district.
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