A patwari, a local revenue department official, was crushed to death by a tractor-trolley used for transporting sand illegally in Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh, police said on Sunday.
The police have arrested the driver of the vehicle in connection with the incident that occurred around midnight on Saturday, an official said.
A patrolling team of government employees, including patwari Prasann Singh, intercepted the tractor-trolley transporting illegally mined sand near Son River in the Gopalpur area, Deolond police station in-charge Rajkumar Mishra said.
On reaching the river, Singh, posted as patwari in Khadda of Bohari tehsil, saw a tractor-trolley carrying sand and tried to stop it, but the driver ran over him, he said.
Singh was killed on the spot, while the accused driver fled with the vehicle, the official said.
Talking to PTI, Shahdol's Superintendent of Police (SP) Kumar Prateek said the police began the probe immediately and identified the tractor and its driver Shubham Vishwakarma (25), who was arrested on Sunday morning.
A case under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against Vishwakarma, who is a resident of Maihar district, around 8 km from the scene of the crime, he said.
The tractor has been seized and its owner has been identified, he added.
District collector Vandana Vaidya said following complaints of illegal sand mining, a joint team of the revenue, mining departments, and the police had inspected the area on November 23.
Illegally mined sand was seized on Thursday and Friday from the same area, she said.
The sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Beohari and other officials cracked down on the illegal activity in the area till 8.30 pm on Saturday, the collector said.
However, the incident occurred when Singh and three of his colleagues went to the spot to take stock of the situation later, she said.
Meanwhile, the state Congress chief Kamal Nath blamed the alleged corruption and scams during the Bharatiya Janata Party rule in the state for this incident.
'This is not the first time that the sand mafia in Madhya Pradesh has crushed a government official to death in such a way. This situation has arisen due to corruption and scams that flourished during the Shivraj (chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan) government in Madhya Pradesh,' Nath said in a post on X.
Condoling the death, the Congress leader demanded financial assistance for the family of the deceased.
