Nagpur. The Crime Branch has tightened the noose against the mafia who smuggled sand into the state through Bogus Transit Pass (TP) of Madhya Pradesh. This action has stirred up the traders who supply sand. It is to be known that a few days ago the police had caught trucks laden with sand. During the investigation, the sand mafia had informed about bringing sand from Madhya Pradesh and showed the transit pass issued from MP. Later the TP was found to be fake and Rahul Naresh Khanna (25) was arrested from Govindpur in Bhopal. Rahul was providing MP’s TP to the sand mafia of the city in a fake manner. On the basis of this TP, the sand mafia of Nagpur district was excavating sand from different ghats and selling it in the market without royalty.
Now in this case, the police has arrested the sand mafia gang of Savner Khapa. The arrested accused include Khapa resident Surendra Vithoba Savarkar (31), Piyush Rajendra Burde (28), Ishaan Lahukumar Bangde (31), Ashish Moolchand Gaur (26) and Mahesh Chandraprakash Chakole (36), residents of Bazar Chowk, Savner. Information is being received about the connection with the big leaders of all sand mafia. In the future, more people may be arrested in this case. The arrested accused were produced in the court. The court has ordered to keep them in police custody till January 27.
Complicity of wharf owners
In this whole racket, the biggest role is played by the ghat owners but the truth is that every time they get away from action. In the past too, the police have caught a truck laden with sand stolen from the neighboring districts including Nagpur. Action is taken against the driver and the transporter. Without seeing the receipt of royalty, the wharf owner cannot allow the sand to be lifted. Here even the TP of MP is being scammed. Transporters and sand mafia are lifting goods from nearby districts of Nagpur and defrauding the state government of lakhs of rupees by showing MP’s TP. Action should also be taken against the owners of the ghat from which the goods were stolen.