‘No involvement of sand mafia’

Tribune News Service

Mohali, June 20

While Seonk villagers have stopped talking to the media after a brutal attack on Forest Department officials, Kuldeep Chahal, Senior Superintendent of Police, says no sand mafia was involved in the attack and the accused were villagers, who were “trying to make some money”.

The police claimed to have arrested four of the six attackers, but deny the presence of any sand mafia in the area. The Senior Superintendent of Police said: “Some young farmers were looking forward to make some extra money and were involved in selling sand on a small scale”. However, a visit to the area shows that acres have been dug up for the purpose, which is an indicator of the scale of the activity.

Block Forest Officer Davinder Singh, still in coma, and his colleagues had laid a naka when a trolley full of sand and some logs arrived.

When they stopped the trolley, checked it and questioned the six accused, the officials were brutally attacked. However, after the attack, the accused emptied the trolley at the spot and fled. The sand which was unloaded was lying at the spot till Wednesday.