Gadchiroli March 17 (District Correspondent) As many as 16 persons involved in sand smuggling have been arrested by the Local Crime Branch (LCB) of the district Police along with 12 trucks at the sand ghat of village Dongartamashi in Armori taluka on March 14 night last.
Their names have been given as Nikhil Bhure, Rahul Ghormode, Sonal uike, Dhananjay Madavi, Yashwant Madkam, Nitesh Malode, Afsar Sheikh, Abdul Razik, Ataulla Khan, Naresh Dhok, Naseer Sheikh, Santosh Pawar, Sheikh Wasim, Nikhil Sahare, Jawed Khan and Shyam Chaudhari.
On getting information of the large-scale smuggling of sand from the Khobragadi River near village Dongartamashi, the LCB sleuths, under the guidance of SP Nilotpal got into action and raided the sand ghat. The police team was led by Police Inspector Ulhas Chaudhari, PSI Deepak Kumbhare and Rahul Awhad of the LCB.
During this raid it was found that some persons were excavating the sand with the JCB and Pokland machines. As many as 12 trucks with tippers were also standing on the spot for transporting this sand illegally.
The police seized all these vehicles and material amounting to Rs. 3.40 crores and arrested all the 16 persons engaged in the sand smuggling. A big gang of the sand smugglers that has been engaged in illegal activity for the last many days and has smuggled the sand worth crores of rupees thereby putting a severe loss to the government has been brought to fore by the police.
All the accused were produced before the judicial magistrate here and they have been remanded to magisterial custody of 14 days.
The police officials who participated in the sqad included Purushottam Wadgure, Naresh sahare, Hemant Gedam, Satish Kattiwar, Deepak Lengure, Shukrachari Gavai, Rakesh sontakke, Sunil Puttawar, Shrikant Bainwar, Mangesh Raut, Shrikrishna Parchake, Sachin Ghubde and others.
An offence has been registered against the smugglers and further investigations are being conducted by PI Ulhas Chaudhari. The action of the police department is being hailed by the general public here.
Photo The police officials seen with the accused and seized trucks.
