Illegal soil extraction: 8 held over assault on Tehsildar in Odisha’s Dhenkanal

Bhubaneswar: Kamakhyanagar Police in Dhenkanal district of Odisha today claimed to have arrested eight persons in connection with the assault on Parjang Tehsildar Subhra Patel at Patharkhamba village yesterday.

Some miscreants had attacked the Tehsildar and tried to run him over with an excavator, engaged in illegal soil extraction in the locality.

The incident took place when some people were extracting soil illegally from a piece of government land at Patharkhamba yesterday morning.

Around 8-10 people involved in the illegal extraction of soil attacked the Tehsildar and tried to run him over with an excavator (JCB machine) when the latter raised an objection, sources said.

The miscreants also attacked Revenue Inspector Alok Lenka when he tried to rescue the injured Tehsildar, sources added.

“We have arrested as many as eight persons in connection with the assault and seized a JCB machine and two tractors engaged in the illegal extraction of soil at Patharkhamba,” said Dhenkanal Superintendent of Police (SP) Gyan Ranjan Mahapatra at presser today.

The accused have been produced in a local court. Steps are being taken to find out the involvement of any other person (s) in the incident, added the SP.

The police claimed that some people were extracting soil illegally from the government land to sell the same to a private contractor engaged in the construction of a canal in the locality.

“The miscreants were also involved in felling of trees from government land. Our investigation also confirmed that they had planned to grab the government land,” said the SP.

The administration has constituted a special task force to check illegal extraction of soil, sand and other minor minerals from Dhenkanal district, he added.