Officials seized an earthmover and a tipper lorry involved in illegal sand mining on poromboke land along Sevalur Pudukottai tank and arrested two persons on Monday.
The Tiruthangal police identified the accused as lorry driver B. Thangeswaran, 20, of Paraipatti and L. Kumaresan, 24, driver of earthmover of Chinnapappareddipatti.
They are on the lookout for Thangeswaran’s father, P. Botharraja of Paraipatti, the owner of the tipper lorry, and G. Murugan of Villur, Madurai district, owner of the earthmover. They also seized two units of sand from the tipper lorry.
Sub-Collector, Sivakasi, C. Dinesh Kumar, said that the seized vehicles would not be released without the clearance from the court of law.
He said that another sand smuggler Chellapandian of M. Mettupatti was arrested recently for similar crime and an earthmover and tipper lorry were seized from him.
Stating that the Revenue officials and the police were keeping a close watch on some of the known sand smugglers, Mr. Dinesh Kumar added that stringent action is being initiated against sand smugglers.
He recalled that one ‘Meesai’ Murugan, an habitual offender, was booked under Goondas Act in January.
