BALASORE: Thumbing its nose at the police, the sand mafia reportedly attacked two junior mining officers in presence of cops at Chalantai near Subarnarekha river bed in Jaleswar here on Thursday night.
Junior mining officers of Jaleswar Jitendra Das and his Basta counterpart Satya Chinmaya suffered injuries after being allegedly attacked by a group of 10 miscreants having links with the sand mafia. The incident took place during a crackdown on unauthorised sand mining on Subarnarekha river bed.
Jitendra said on a tip off, he along with Satya and local police raided the illegal sand mining sites on Subarnarekha bed at around 12 am. However, the sand mafia managed to escape with their vehicles on seeing the enforcement team. They were returning from the river bed when a group of miscreants intercepted their car and blocked the path with their motorcycles.
“They verbally abused the police personnel and mining officials and clicked our photographs with their mobile phones. When we opposed, the miscreants rushed towards us aggressively. Some of them dragged us out of our vehicles and assaulted us in presence of police,” he alleged.
On being informed about the incident, additional force from Jaleswar police station arrived on the spot. On seeing more cops, the miscreants fled. The injured mining officers were taken to Jaleswar hospital. They were later discharged after receiving preliminary treatment.
Police said a mobile phone belonging to one of the miscreants was recovered from the spot. An SUV used by the sand mafia was also seized from the river bank.
IIC of Jaleswar police station Jayanta Behera said a case was registered on basis of the complaint lodged by the junior mining officer of Jaleswar on Friday. The miscreants involved in the attack have been identified. Efforts are on to nab them. Further investigation is underway, he added.
This is the latest in a series of brazen attacks on officials trying to curb illegal sand mining in the region.
Three days back, junior mining officer of Balasore circle Tapas Kumar Behera was injured after being allegedly attacked by the sand mafia at Kathasangada in Remuna area.
Last week, the additional tehsildar of Kaptipada also suffered injuries after being attacked by the sand mafia near Suno river bed in neighbouring Mayurbhanj district.