New Delhi: In a tragic incident in Madhya Pradesh, a local revenue department official, known as a patwari, lost his life after being crushed by a tractor-trolley used for transporting sand illegally in Shahdol district.
The incident occurred around midnight on Saturday, police said on Sunday. The driver of the vehicle was arrested by police, reported PTI.
Deolond police station in-charge Rajkumar Mishra said that a patrolling team of government employees, including patwari Prasann Singh, intercepted the tractor-trolley transporting illegally mined sand near Son River in the Gopalpur area.
On reaching the river, as Singh attempted to stop it, the driver ran over him, which resulted in Singh's immediate death.
The accused driver fled the scene with the vehicle.
Talking to PTI, Shahdol's Superintendent of Police (SP) Kumar Prateek said the police began the probe immediately and identified the tractor and its driver Shubham Vishwakarma (25), who was arrested on Sunday morning.
A case under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against Vishwakarma, who is a resident of Maihar district, around 8 km from the scene of the crime, he said.
District collector Vandana Vaidya said following complaints of illegal sand mining, a joint team of the revenue, mining departments, and the police had inspected the area on November 23.
Vaidya said that illegally mined sand was seized on Thursday and Friday from the same area.
The sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Beohari and other officials cracked down on the illegal activity in the area till 8.30 pm on Saturday, but the incident occurred when Singh and three of his colleagues went to the spot to take stock of the situation later, the collector said.
Meanwhile, the state Congress chief Kamal Nath blamed the alleged corruption and scams during the BJP rule in the state for this incident.
“This is not the first time that the sand mafia in Madhya Pradesh has crushed a government official to death in such a way. This situation has arisen due to corruption and scams that flourished during the Shivraj (chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan) government in Madhya Pradesh,” Nath said in a post on X.
The Congress leader demanded financial assistance for the family of the deceased.