Truck mows down scribe who exposed mining ring
BHOPAL: A television journalist, who exposed an alleged nexus between police and the sand mining mafia in Chambal region, died on Monday after he was run over by a truck in Bhind, more than 500 kilometers from Bhopal.
Sandeep Sharma, 35, who was working as a stringer with a news channel was on his way to the Press Club at Bhind on his bike at around 8.30 am when a truck hit him from behind. The truck driver fled from the spot but left the vehicle at a nearby garage.
Police arrested the accused driver, identified as 19-year-old Randheer Yadav, in the evening and Chambal zone inspector general of police, Santosh Singh, said he was being interrogated. The truck that was being driven by Yadav is owned by one Bhaskar Sharma, who is involved in transport business, police said.
Bhind police have formed a six-member special investigation team to look into the case after MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that a highlevel probe would be carried out.
Local journalists said the ‘accident’ was an orchestrated murder as Sharma, survived by his wife and two children, had ‘exposed the nexus between police and the mafia’. “
He was an honest journalist. He exposed how police in the district are hand-in-glove with the mining mafia,” said Bhind Press Club president Satyanarayan Sharma.
Sharma had carried out a sting last year in which the subdivisional police officer was shown disclosing the bribe given to the police by illegal miners. A few police officers were transferred after the sting was aired.
The Opposition, led by Congress leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kamal Nath and Ajay Singh, demanded a CBI inquiry into the incident.
“Mining mafia is operating with impunity and the government has shut its eyes,” Scindia tweeted.
Local journalists said police failed to provide security to Sharma, who had submitted a letter to Bhind SP Prashant Khare last year, stating that there was a threat to his life from a sub-divisional police officer and the mining mafia.