IAS officer in MP survives sand mafia hit

Barely a year after the killing of young IPS officer Narendra Kumar, allegedly by a member of the mining mafia, an unsuccessful attempt to run over a trainee IAS officer posted at Sabalgarh in Madhya Pradesh was made by the sand mafia on Wednesday.

Acting on a tip-off that sand mafia was illegally mining sand from Bhayana village near protected Chambal Gharial Sanctuary with help of machines on a large scale, the officer, Abhishek Singh, who is posted as trainee Sub Divisional Magistrate reached the spot to nab them, police said.

However, when the official along with police reached there, those engaged in illegal mining got started fleeing the place.

In the melee, a tractor driver hit the official vehicle of the IAS officer forcing its occupants, including Singh to jump out to save themselves. The SDM's vehicle was badly damaged in the incident, police said.

However, nobody suffered any injury, they said.

Sabalgarh's Sub Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP), Devendra Kushwaha said while 3-4 tractor-trolley drivers managed to escape from the spot alongwith their vehicles, police seized a tractor-trolley, a machine used for pumping out sand from the Chambal river and arrested a person Vijay Singh in this connection.

A case has been registered and further investigations are on, police said.

Last year on March 8, the 32-year-old officer was allegedly crushed to death by a tractor driver when he tried to stop the vehicle carrying illegally-mined stones.