6 persons arrested after DFO suffers injuries in stone mafia attack in Odisha’s Dhenkanal

The accused were identified as Abhimanyu Rout, Sudhansu Rout, Prabhakar Moharana, Jatia Dehury, Pradeep Swain and Akhaya Behera, all from the same village

Dhenkanal: As many as six persons have been arrested after a Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Odisha’s Dhenkanal district was reportedly attacked by members of a stone mafia while patrolling near a forest in Kurumatanga village there on Saturday night. The accused were identified as Abhimanyu Rout, Sudhansu Rout, Prabhakar Moharana, Jatia Dehury, Pradeep Swain and Akhaya Behera, all from the same village

As per reports, DFO Prakash Chand Gogineni and his team were out on a night patrol near Kurumatanga stone mine when they intercepted a truck. The vehicle, as per sources, was laden with stones illegally mined from the area. When the driver could not furnish the required documents, the DFO and team made an attempt to seize the truck but were attacked by the stone smugglers.

One of them hurled a brick at the forest officials resulting in the DFO suffering minor injuries on his head. While the gang fled after the attack, the DFO was shifted to the district headquarters hospital for treatment. He later filed a complaint with the Sadar police basing on which a case was registered.

Police said the matter is being investigated and efforts are on to track down all others who were involved in the incident.

 

 

 

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