LAGATAR24 NETWORK
Dumka, May 26: An administrative team led by the deputy commissioner Ravishankar Shukla on Wednesday seized around 40 trucks overloaded with stone chips at different locations in the district during the night.
A total of 16 accused, most of them being drivers and cleaners of the seized transport vehicles, were also arrested during the six hours long administrative drive which is the first of its kind in the district which was led by a deputy commissioner.
SP Ambar Lakra also accompanied the deputy commissioner and they inspected the vehicles at nearly half a dozen spots along different transportation routes when they found the minerals being transported without any valid documents.
The seizure of trucks carrying illegally procured minerals particularly when the ambit of the ongoing investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the illegal mining menace has been gradually widening and is believed to zero down to the local players, however it suggest that the contraband practices still go unabated in the district.
Notably, the police administration too has suddenly swung into action and nabbed a few of the noted mining mafias against whom FIRs were lodged in connection with the illegal mining activities at Shikaripara police station.
The entire operation is however being viewed in the backdrop of the recent directive of chief minister Hemant Soren to the respective district administration to launch crackdown against illegal mining in respective areas of their jurisdiction.
The administrative team firstly intercepted transport vehicles at the Phulo Jhano Chowk along the bypass ring road and culminated at sarasdangal and other deep pockets of Shikaripara police station area.
“The occupants of the trucks which were overloaded with stone chips either produced fictitious documents or failed to produce any which prompted us to seize them all and arrest them,” SP Ambar Lakda said, adding sixteen persons were arrested during the drive and sent to jail.
However, most of the drivers and cleaners managed to flee from their spots but the trucks were later brought to the police line with the help of the local drivers.
