A police constable was mowed down allegedly by sand mafia when he tried to stop a dumper carrying illegally mined sand from Chambal River near a village here in the wee hours today.
"We have lodged a case under section 304 of IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) against the driver who fled from the spot," Morena superintendent of police Navneet Bhasin told PTI.
Constable Dharmendra Chouhan went to Louhgarh village under Noorabad police station limits along with a team late last night following a tip-off that some persons involved in a loot incident were hiding there. He spotted a dumper parked on a roadside there and decided to check it past midnight, said Inspector General, Chambal Range, R S Meena.
The driver upon seeing police tried to escape from the spot along with the dumper loaded with illegally mined sand, he said.
But, the 40-year-old constable, posted at Noorabad police station, clung onto its door on the driver's side and tried to pull him down, he said.
The driver then started reversing the dumper at a great speed and then turned it towards the driving side. As a result, the vehicle fell into a ditch and overturned trapping the constable under it resulting in his death. The dumper driver fled from the spot soon after the incident.
A manhunt had been launched for the yet-unidentified driver, Bhasin said, adding that forest department was asked to launch a prosecution under the Wildlife Protection Act for those responsible for illegal mining.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court banned sand mining in the river more than five years ago in response to a PIL, observing that it posed threat to gharials who lay eggs in the sand.
In March 2012, IPS officer Narendra Kumar was mowed down by a tractor allegedly owned by sand mafia in Morena district. A CBI probe was later conducted into the killing and the accused, Manoj Gurjar, was arrested. He was later awarded a 10-year jail term.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Congress's chief spokesman K K Mishra said the entire state had become a capital of mining mafia under the patronage of the BJP government.
He said the police were so helpless that even though one of them was killed today, they had not registered a case for murder.
