Bihar: 60 vehicles seized, ₹1.5 crore fine slapped during raid against sand mafia

The raid was conducted on Monday night on a tip off that a large number of overloaded sand vehicles from Rohtas and Aurangabad side were to pass to Uttar Pradesh through National Highway 2.

BHABUA: 52 trucks and 8 heavy vehicles overloaded with sand were seized during a joint raid by administrative and police officers on GT Road (National Highway 2) in Bihar’s Kaimur district on Monday night, officials said, adding that fines worth ₹1.3 crore were slapped against their owners.

52 trucks and 8 heavy vehicles overloaded with sand were seized during a raid against sand mafia in Bihar’s Kaimur district on Monday night. (File/Representational Image)

On a tip off that a large number of overloaded sand vehicles from Rohtas and Aurangabad side were to pass to Uttar Pradesh through the national highway (NH) in the night, district magistrate Navdeep Shukla formed teams under senior administrative, police and mining officials.

The teams led by Mohania sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), Rahul Kumar, sub divisional police officer (SDPO), Faiz Ahmad, and deputy collector land reforms (DCLR), Rajesh Kumar Singh raided the NH from Kudra to Karmnasha borders.

52 overloaded trucks and 8 heavy vehicles, which were parked at line hotels or roadside to escape the raids, were seized and handed over to the mining and transport department officials. Fines worth ₹1.5 crore were slapped against the owners of the seized vehicles, officials said.

On February 14, during a midnight raid by the district administration, 50 overloaded sand trucks were seized and fines worth ₹1.3 crores were slapped against the overloading mafia on NH 2.

The sand mafia allegedly mines sand from Sone River in Aurangabad and Rohtas districts in collusion with the departmental officials concerned and sell it in Uttar Pradesh.

The mining mafia causes ₹1,000 crore yearly loss to the state exchequer. Besides, almost all bridges and roads on the 70km stretch of the NH were damaged due to the plying of sand trucks carrying more load than the permissible capacity of the structure, officials said.

The state government has made an integrated check post at Mohania in Kaimur near Uttar Pradesh borders with round the clock availability of administrative, police, excise, mining and transport department officials.