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Forest ranger mowed down in MP mining mafia’s latest attack on officials
The mining mafia in Madhya Pradesh’s Chambal region have often targeted police, forest or revenue officials who try to stand in their way.
A forest ranger was crushed to death when he tried to stop a tractor laden with illegally-mined sand in Morena district on Friday morning, the latest in a series of attacks on officials trying to curb Madhya Pradesh’s mining mafia.
Deputy ranger Subedar Singh Kushwaha was on duty at the forest department post near Ghirona temple in Morena, 480 km north of Bhopal, when the incident took place.
Morena district police chief Amit Sanghi said the tractor trolley driver escaped with the vehicle after running over the officer. “A hunt is on for him,” he said.
“The officer had tried to stop the tractor laden with illegally mined sand but the tractor driver increased his speed. Kushwaha came under the vehicle’s rear tyres,” he added.
Forest guards took him to the hospital but he had already died by then, the police officer said.
The mining mafia in Madhya Pradesh’s Chambal region have often targeted police, forest or revenue officials who try to stand in their way.
In March this year, news channel journalist Sandeep Sharma, who reportedly exposed the nexus between police and the sand mining mafia in Chambal region, was run over by a dumper at Bhind district.
Last year, Indian Administrative Service officer Sonia Meena was threatened at gun point by illegal miners when, as a sub-divisional magistrate in Chhattarpur district, she made a bid to check illegal mining in Betwa river. Later, she faced a death threat and complained to chief secretary BP Singh.
In 2016, Narender Sharma, a forest guard who had tried to stop a tractor trolley, had already been run over by the vehicle. A year earlier, constable Dharmendra Chauhan was run over by another vehicle carrying illegally mined sand when he tried to stop it.
In March 2012, Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Narendra Kumar was crushed to death by a tractor-trolley carrying illegally mined stone in Banmore in Morena when he tried to stop the vehicle.
