Sand mafia tries to run over police chief

Mumbai: The sand mafia in Palghar tried to run over the superintendent of police (SP) Gaurav Singh when he reached a spot where illegal dredging was being carried out Sunday night.

The accused dumper driver tried to crush the police chief in a bid to flee from the spot, following which, the area was raided and equipment and sand worth `2.35 crore was seized.

The incident took place around 9.30 pm at Khardi Reti Bunder in the jurisdiction of Virar police station. SP Singh was going to Mira Road but changed his route and headed to the spot. He reached the spot with the local police, when dredging was underway in the dark, officials said. The dumpers tried to escape and in the process, one of the drivers tried to run over SP Singh who, however, escaped getting crushed. The investigators said that the dredging activity was being carried out on a massive scale using as many as 15 JCB machines to load the sand in the dumpers.

“After the roads were dirtied by sand dredgers, which first hinted at these illegal activities, a crackdown was carried out a fortnight ago. However, they were back to business. At least 62 hutments had also been built, damaging the environment at the spot,” said an officer of Palghar police.

The police found 338 brass sand to have been dredged illegally by the accused, out of which 3 brass has been seized by the officials. The police arrested Neeraj Yadav (29), Anil Chavan (26) and Sunil Chavan (20), who have past cases of dredging against them.