Policeman confined by truck driver ferrying illegal quarry material

In a case highlighting the audacity of the mining mafia, a policeman was not only driven away in a mini truck, but also intimidated by its driver after a police team nabbed him while transporting illegal quarry material near Manpura village on the Baddi-Nalagarh highway around 2.20 am last night.

A mini truck coming from Kharuni on the Nalagarh-Baddi highway abruptly started reversing after seeing a police team on the highway, near Manpura last night. When chased and stopped by the policemen, the truck was found loaded with illegal quarry material mined from the government land along the Sarsa river at Handakhundi village.

On enquiring by the police, the driver identified himself as Madan, a resident of Handakhundi village. He, however, failed to produce any valid document like registration and insurance certificate of the vehicle when asked by the police. A honorary head constable Laxmi Chand then seated himself on the conductor seat of the said truck and directed Madan to drive towards the Manpura police station in a bid to impound the vehicle.

Madan, however, evaded the police and sped towards his village, while intimidating the policeman and putting his life at risk. Though the police team pursued him, he out manoeuvred them and lifted the vehicle’s jack to splatter the quarry material on the road in a bid to obstruct the police vehicle. After giving a slip to the police team he dropped the policeman some distance away and fled towards his village in the dark according to the FIR registered in this connection.

It was, however, surprising that the driver managed to not only flee with ease, but also dropped the policeman at his convenience leaving the police empty handed. The manner in which a lone driver managed to give the police a slip has put a question mark over their lack of preparedness to deal with such offenders and wrong doers, who appear to have little fear of the law, as they operate fearlessly and extract mining material from the government land.

An FIR has been registered under Sections 305(e), 127(2), 221 and 224 of the BNS, Section 21 of the Mines and Minerals (Development an Regulation) Act, 1957, and Section 177 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, for theft of government property, wrongful confinement, voluntary obstruction of a public servants in discharge of their official duty and making a threat of injury to a public servant to induce them to act against their public functions, informed Additional SP Ashok Verma. He said further probe was underway into the matter.