Official attacked by sand mafia in Maharashtra

Mumbai, May 4 (IANS) In the second such attack in the last two days, another official cracking down on the sand mafia was attacked near Shirdi in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district, police said Friday.

"The tehsildar of Rahata town, Rahul Kothade, was attacked by two people late Thursday after he stopped them and inspected the contents of the truck they were driving near Shirdi," an official from Shirdi police station told IANS.

"Kothade suspected they were members of a sand mafia gang active in the region. The accused manhandled Kothade when he asked to check the contents in the truck and hit him with pipes and punched and kicked him," the official added.

One of the accused, Sunil Ghoderao has been arrested while the other, Rupesh Thorat is still absconding. The police are questioning Ghoderao.

Shirdi is around 250 km from Mumbai in western Maharashtra.

This is the second such attack on a district official cracking down on the active sand mafia. On Thursday, a government patrol jeep allotted to the tehsildar of Mehunbare in Jalgaon district was set afire by unidentified persons suspected to be sand mafia, injuring its driver.