A deputy superintendent of police (DSP) investigating a matter of illegal stone mining was run over and killed by a dumper-truck driver and his accomplices in the Tauru area of Nuh district of Haryana. The latter fled after their dastardly act.
According to reports, Tauru DSP Surender Singh and his team were checking out complaints of illegal mining in the Aravali hills in Pachgaon area.
When Singh and two policemen spotted the dumper-truck, he signalled it to stop so as to check its documents; the driver instead accelerated in a bid to get away. Though the two cops jumped aside, the DSP was run over.
Nuh district happens to be notorious for illegal mining as well as attacks on cops by the sand mafia which has standing instructions to run over cops in case there is an interception. Such complaints have been commonplace in the district for the past several years. Singh, who was recruited as an assistant-sub inspector in Haryana police in 1994, was to retire later this year.
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar declared Singh a martyr and announced financial assistance of Rs 1 crore to the family along with a government job for a family member. ``We are with the family in this hour of grief. This is a loss to the entire force and we will not let the sacrifice go in vain. Nobody will be spared and we will take quick and strict in action’’, he said.
OPPN LAMBAST BJP-JJP GOVT
Meanwhile, the opposition parties lashed out at the ruling BJP-JJP government for what they alleged was its law and order failure. There were also frequent reports of illegal mining in Faridabad, Gurugram, and Yamunanagar, charged Congress working committee member and former Union minister Kumari Selja. Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Chautala said criminals and the mining mafia had state government’s patronage.
Meanwhile, in a late evening development, Haryana police claimed to have arrested one of the accused in the said case of murder after a brief exchange of fire.
