Another government official was assaulted allegedly by illegal sand transporters in Hassan on Friday morning.
Police inspector Manje Gowda was assaulted by a group of around eight persons when he was checking the documents of trucks carrying sand at Channapatna bypass near Hassan. The attackers hit the officer on his head and face, and fled with his mobile phone.
Mr. Manje Gowda, attached to the District Crime Investigation Bureau, and his team had seized four trucks for flouting norms. He was admitted to the Hassan Institute of Medical Sciences and later, shifted to a private hospital.
Superintendent of Police Raman Gupta and Additional SP Shobha Rani visited the hospital. Two teams, constituted by the SP, managed to arrest four of the accused by Friday evening. People’s representatives H.D. Revanna and A. Manju condemned the attack.
Similar incidents
In the past, many officers faced similar attacks when they attempted to take on the sand mafia. Channarayapatna tahsildar H.L. Nagaraj had a miraculous escape when a truck driver tried to ram his vehicle while he was pursuing him for transporting sand without proper documents. Assistant Commissioner of Sakleshpur P.I. Srividya was threatened when she took action against illegal sand transporters.
Hassan tahsildar K. Mathai faced an angry mob several times during his raids on illegal sand extraction points. Alur tahsildar Baby John had a similar experience in 2011. Many village accountants were attacked when they were members of the hobli-level squad that curbed illegal sand extraction.
Manje Gowda and his team were verifying documents of sand trucks when a group assaulted him near Channapatna bypass
on Friday
