PATNA | Aug 3, 2016: A joint team of Patna and Bhojpur police, led by Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj, on Tuesday arrested 30 alleged criminals, seized 24 poclain machines and four boats during an operation against illegal sand mining in Maner area. Police sources said the criminals had illegally occupied acres of land in the diara area of Maner and were engaged in illegal sand mining.
The two gangs of Shankar Dayal Singh alias Fauji and Uma Shanker Singh alias Sipahi involved in sand mining in the area had a violent clash on Sunday near Chaurasi Ghat on the border of Bihta in Patna district and Bhojpur district. Fauji, a native of Bhojpur, allegedly runs a gang named 'Samadhi' in the diara area of Patna. Earlier in 2014, he was arrested from Bihpur-Lodhipur area of Maner but was later released on bail. He had revealed to the police that his gang had been closely associated with several political figures like Ritlal Yadav and Rama Singh.
Fauji was in the 10th battalion of Army for 11 years. It is the commando battalion and Fauji also had commando training. According to a police official, Fauji has invested his money in real estate. At least 20 guys used to be on duty at a time.
"The police team, including Bhojpur SP Kshatranil Singh, Patna City SP (west) K Satyarthi and ASP (Ops) Anupam Kumar rounded off the area with three boats around 5am. Despite the presence of police, the mafiosi continued to mine sand. The Chaurasi ghat from where they were arrested is not licensed by the government for sand mining. One of the arrested criminals was a named accused in the Sunday encounter," Patna SSP said.
He said, "Each poclain machine costs around Rs75 lakh. It is not feasible to set up police check-post in the area because if they attack the police, it will be difficult to send reinforcement due to sand and water terrain. Today, we have damaged them economically by seizing the poclain machines and this process would continue."
Police have found live and used cartridges of sophisticated firearms. "The criminals were using the diara area as a safe den. They put a check-post to stop trespassers and collected extortion from the transporters using the riverine route for commercial purposes," an official, who was part of the raiding team, said.
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)