Bihar’s sand mafia attack police party, three cops injured

AROUND 30 MEMBERS OF THE SAND MAFIA ATTACKED THE SIXMEMBER POLICE TEAM WITH STICKS AS SOON AS IT REACHED CHANDRALAY VILLAGE

Thumbing its nose at police, sand mafia in Bihar attacked a police team, injuring at least three cops at a remote village in Bihar’s Vaishali district, 20 km north of Patna, late on Thursday evening.

Police inspector and station house officer of Sadar police station, Chitranjan Thakur, was admitted to a private nursing home in Patna in a serious condition. The others injured, assistant sub-inspector Yugal Kishore Singh and constable Lal Babu Prasad, were undergoing treatment at Sadar Hospital in Hajipur. They were reported to be out of danger.

Around 30 members of the sand mafia attacked the six-member police team with sticks as soon as it reached Chandralay village at 10.30pm on Thursday. Illegal trade of sand takes place under the cover of darkness, which is when trucks and tractors are loaded with building construction material.

The police had gone to check after they reportedly got a tip-off about illegal sand trade on the 25-km Hajipur-Lalganj stretch. The site where the police team was attacked is full of banana grove and is 35km from Patna and barely 3km from the district police headquarters in Vaishali.

Vaishali SP Rakesh Kumar said, “Two persons have been arrested in connection with the incident. One of them is a contactual employee of a nationalised bank.” Sand mining is a highstakes business, and the estimated trade ranges between ₹7,000 crore and ₹8,000 crore annually, though the Bihar government earns revenue of nearly ₹500 crore out of it.

The government crackdown on illegal mining has hit sand supply for construction work in Patna and neighbouring districts of Bihar. Many builders have been forced to halt work due to a shortage in supply or higher costs, affecting their business.

Police are cracking the whip on illegal sand mafia through raids in Patna, Maner, Ara and at other places in the state and have seized huge stocks of sand. The law prohibits mining on the riverbed during monsoon (July 1 to September 30), but the sand mafia continues to do it in brazen defiance.