Madhya Pradesh police has booked nine forest department officials for alleged murder following the death of a villager in Morena district during an operation against illegally mined sand in the district, said police. The forest department has refuted the allegations and claimed that the deceased was shot down while protecting the illegal sand mining mafia.
Police said two eyewitnesses alleged that one Mahaveer Singh Tomar, a 45-years old resident of Amol Pura village, was beaten up and shot dead by forest department officials after he objected to officers’ firing at the tractor-trolley, laden with illegally mined sand, citing it was a residential area
“Mahaveer’s son Rahul Tomar, 19, filed a complaint with the police and said after abusing his father, forest officials Pramod and Raghvendra shot him dead with their service gun while others used the butt of their guns to assault him. Rahul and two other villagers are claiming to be the eyewitnesses,” Morena’s superintendent of police Lalit Shakyawar said, citing the complaint filed by Mahaveer’s family.
Police said they have registered a case under Section 302 (murder), 147 (punishment for rioting) and 294 (using abusive language) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the nine forest officials on the basis of the complaint and are further investigating the matter.
However, divisional forest officer (DFO) Amit Nikam said that while the forest team was chasing a tractor–trolley laden with illegal sand, the villagers including Mahaveer stopped the team’s vehicle to save the mining mafia. “Mahaveer and others were trying to snatch the guns from forest officials, when a bullet was fired accidently which hit Mahaveer in his chest. We are sending a report on the whole incident to the police,” said the DFO.
The heavy police force has been deployed after villagers staged a demonstration against the forest department and blocked a road connecting the village to the district headquarters.
According to South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), MP was at the third spot in illegal sand mining activities with 16,405 cases registered in 2018-19.
Most of the cases were from Chambal and Narmada river basins. In Morena only, at least more than 600 cases have been registered against illegal sand mining mafia. According to an estimate of environmentalist and local businessmen, every day more than 500 tractor trollies of illegally mined sand, are supplied in the market.
(With inputs from Shiv Pratap Singh)