Madhya Pradesh: Mining mafia fires indiscriminately at police during raid in Morena
The video that has now gone viral show illegal miners fleeing the spot along with the tractors and trolleys in which the illegally mined sand was being carried. The video footage also shows policemen throwing stones at the fleeing members of the sand mafia.
In Short
- Police has made no arrests so far
- Entire incident was recorded in video which is now viral
- Miners are from three nearby villages
Morena district police have cancelled all gun licenses of three villages following Sunday's incident in which illegal sand miners resorted to indiscriminate firing on a joint team of the police, mining department and forest department when they tried to confiscate a JCB machine used for illegal mining on the banks of Chambal river.
Speaking to India Today, Morena district Superintendent of Police Vineet Khanna accepted that there was indiscriminate firing from the side of the illegal miners. "Our team had gone to stop illegal sand mining and confiscate the heavy machinery used for the purpose but there was heavy resistance and indiscriminate firing following which we also had to resort to firing. We have identified eight people and an attempt to murder case has been registered against them along with 24 others who have not yet been identified," he said.
No arrests had, however, been made till the filling of this report.
VIRAL VIDEO
The entire incident was video recorded. The video that has now gone viral show illegal miners fleeing the spot along with the tractors and trolleys in which the illegally mined sand was being carried. The video footage also shows policemen throwing stones at the fleeing members of the sand mafia.
Police managed to seize one tractor-trolley from the spot but had to abandon the idea of getting the JCB machine as it grew dark. The JCB machine that was seen in videos of the incident had gone missing when police reached the spot on Monday morning.
According to Kapoor the miners are from three nearby villages Jarah, Barasin and Caneera and gun licenses of the residents of these three villages now stand cancelled. "Police would soon be acting to seize the licensed weapons from these three villages," Kapoor said. Police are also likely to launch a drive against illegally owned weapons in the three villages.
MORENA'S HISTORY
Morena is notorious for illegal sand and stone mining and IPS officer Narendra Kumar was killed in one such incident when a driver of a tractor carrying illegally mined stone drove over him as he tried to stop the vehicle a few years back. Last year another police constable was killed in a similar fashion when he tried to stop a vehicle carrying illegally mined stone.
Following these incidents the state government had even announced sending a team of Special Task Force of the state police to the district but this too could not curb illegal mining activities.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is now undertaking the Nmami Devi Narmada yatra alongside the river Narmada urging people to make conservation of the river into a mass movement. He is also talking about strict action against illegal minors but this seems to be of little deterrence to the mining mafia operating across the state.
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