8 Held For Attack On Tehsildar By Soil Mafia In Odisha’s Dhenkanal

Bhubaneswar: A day after a Tehsildar was attacked while trying to prevent illegal soil extraction at Patharkhamba in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district, police on Saturday arrested eight people in connection with the incident.

Police said eight persons have been arrested over the assault on Parjang Tehsildar Subhra Patel at on Friday. Some miscreants allegedly attacked the Tehsildar and tried to run him over with an excavator, engaged in illegal soil extraction.

The incident took place when some people were extracting soil illegally from government land at Patharkhamba. Over ten people attacked the Tehsildar when he raised an objection, sources said.

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

Dhenkanal Superintendent of Police (SP) Gyan Ranjan Mahapatra said eight people have so far been arrested and efforts are on to ascertain involvement of others in the attack.

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. They were also attempting to grab the government land, he said.

The administration has constituted a special task force to curb illegal extraction of soil, sand and other minor minerals in the district, sources said.