Mira-Bhayandar: Sand Mafias Booked For Stealing Impounded Truck

More than two months after they fled with a sand crush-laden truck which was impounded by the revenue department, three people including the driver and the owners of the vehicle have been booked for robbery by the Bhayandar police. However, none of them have been arrested in the theft case, so far.

In an exemplary act of courage, a 41-year-old lady officer-Anita Pitamber Padvi working as a Talathi, single-handedly caught the driver of truck carrying illegally mined sand after a hot chase in an auto-rickshaw in Bhayandar on November 30.

While approaching the truck to the tehsil office, the driver stopped the vehicle and started a quarrel with the officer before fleeing the spot leaving the truck behind. Padvi immediately summoned her junior colleague to guard the truck and she left for the police station to seek help.

Meanwhile, the driver returned with three people including a woman and fled with the vehicle laden with four brass of sand which was parked on the premises of the tehsildar’s office.

Drivers booked by the police

Padvi who arrived at the spot with the police booked them under sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of his public functions) and 353 (assault or use of criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty) of the IPC. 

A notice invoking five times penalty amounting Rs 4.23 lakh was also imposed under the relevant sections of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 for illegal mining and ferrying sand sans royalty. However, the accused dodged the notices and the penalty remained unpaid.

After investigations the police added section 379 (robbery) of the IPC against three people including the truck driver-Umesh Bahir, owners-Hanumant Devkule and Sanju Shelke on Saturday.

Mafia brazenly bypass web-based Maha Khanij system.

Apart from ferrying illegally mined sand sans royalty, the notorious sand mafia operating in Thane district is brazenly bypassing the web-based Maha Khanij system by ferrying various types of minerals on the virtue of invalid royalty receipts and expired electronic transport permits (ETP) causing multi-crore losses to the state exchequer. Truckers on the behest of the sand mafia also switch off the vehicle tracking system (VTS) to avoid live tracking, route deviation and real-time movement of vehicles.