Lagatar24 Network
Dumka, Jan 13: Blowing whistle on rampant smuggling of coal and other minerals from Dumka district allegedly being run by a senior JMM functionary proved costly to Prakash Gandharva, the state president of Hindu Kranti Sena, an outfit engaged in anti-cattle smuggling drives.
Prakash was arrested by the police last night in connection with a case lodged against him with the town police station here in October last year.
Gandharva, who continued raising points against the ruling JMM pertaining to the rampant mining and transportation of coal and other minerals from the district, had in an interview with a local news blog named one Mohammad Salam Ansari, the spokesperson of the district JMM to be allegedly running the racket of smuggling of minerals only yesterday.
The move of Dumka police to arrest him the same night is also being viewed in the same backdrop instead of the same being a common legal recourse.
Gandharva has in the interview categorically alleged that the district spokesperson of the JMM cause huge loss to the exchequer in terms of illegally running the racket of illegal mining and transportation of coal and other minerals including stones and sand apart from being indulged in cattle smuggling under the patronage of the ruling JMM and demanded for the CBI enquiry.
He has also accused the local police being the mute spectator of the prevailing mining menace which ultimately resulted in his arrest after the gap of nearly three months since his name figured in the FIR for allegedly demanding extortion from a group of farmers while they were on way to their homes after purchasing cattle from local weekly haat.
The FIR in which Gandharva along with few other members of the Hindu Kranti Sena were named dates back to October 2021 when they had actually handed over a herd of cattle to the town police station allegedly being smuggled to Bangladesh for slaughtering.
By the time the FIR against Sena members was lodged, the JMM spokesperson Mohammad Salam Ansari too was seen present at the town police station and pleading innocence on behalf of the alleged cattle smugglers.
“It was due to the political pressure exerted by the JMM that police instead of arresting cattle smugglers named me and other members of Hindu Kranti Sena in a fabricated FIR despite myself being at my home” Gandharva told reporters on Thursday while being taken to jail.
Gandharva’s family members including his wife and daughters meanwhile have accused the police team of thrashing and abusing them while arresting him last night.
“He (Prakash Gandharva) was wanted in a case lodged against him in October last year pertaining to extortion and thrashing farmers on way to their home with the cattle they had purchased from local haat,” Dy SP Noor Mustafa said.
