Sand smugglers threaten to kill tehsildar in Odisha

Sand smugglers have allegedly issued death threats to a tehsildar when he seized two tractor trolleys engaged in illegally lifting sand from Brahmani river in Odisha's Jajpur district, police said. The sand mafia also took away the two tractor trolleys which had been seized by the Tehsildar of Rasulpur, Jyotikanta Bhujabal on Monday, police said.

The tehsildar filed a complaint with Kuakhia police on Monday night. According to the complaint, the tehsildar was going to Bandhadiha village to assess property loss in an incident of fire when he noticed that some trucks and tractors were lifting sand illegally at Karajan ghat of Brahmani river.

When Bhujabal stopped his vehicle near the ghat, two sand-laden trucks fled from the scene and he managed to seize two sand-laden tractor trolleys. When I made the seizure, four youths started abusing me. They forcibly took away the sand-laden vehicles after issuing death threats to me, Bhujabala said in his complaint.

The tehsildar has named four persons in his complaint Inspector In-Charge of Kuakhia police station Manoj Kumar Swain said, the police have registered a case and are investigating it. The accused have been identified and they will be rounded up soon, he said.

In 2018, the sand mafia had forcibly taken away sand-laden trucks seized by Jajpur tehsildar at Madhupur ghat near Sathipur from Baitarani river. He had also received similar death threats, the police said. Just two days before the incident, Jajpur town RTO Manoj Kumar Behera had been crushed to death by a truck laden with stone chips on National Highway-215 near Nuapada Chowk near Vyas Nagar town.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)