Two days after the young police officer Narendra Kumar was crushed to death by a tractor-trolley carrying illegally mined stones at Bamore, in Madhya Pradesh’s Murena district, a police team led by SDO J.N. Markam was fired at by those engaged in illegal mining of sand along the Ken river, about 20 km from the Ajaigarh police station in Panna district, on Saturday.
According to available information, no one is said to have been injured. The SDO, along with an adequate police force, including the police station in-charge, rushed to an interior area in the direction of Banda, Uttar Pradesh, on Saturday following a tip-off about illegal sand mining along the Ken river, said to be the least polluted in central India. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the area SDM was also in the raiding party.
When contacted, one of the police officers manning Ajaigarh police station confirmed that the SDO had gone into the interior where illegal sand mining was on.
Leader of the Opposition Ajay Singh has on repeated occasions raised the issue of illegal mining of sand, stones as well as major minerals across the state and has accused the state BJP government of patronising the mining mafia.
Following the brutal killing of Narendra Kumar on March 8, his father, too, has accused the mining mafia and said his son was eliminated as he was trying to break the stranglehold of those engaged in illegal mining. He has demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation be asked to investigate the killing of his son.