Three employees of the Revenue Department sustained minor injuries in stone pelting by followers of a sand contractor belonging to Maharashtra, when a team led by Bodhan Sub-Collector Anurag Jayanthi raided the illegal mining site on the Manjeera bank at Sunkini in Kotagiri mandal on Tuesday.
On a tip off about 30 members of the department along with Tahsildar Vithal rushed to the spot without informing the police. They made an attempt to seize a bulldozer and four JCB machines and other equipment of the contractor whose name is not known immediately.
Resisting their attempts, the miscreants rained stones on the team members resulting in injuries to village assistants Sainath, Shankar and Srinu. However, Kotagiri police sub-inspector Rajkumar said only one employee Sainath sustained an injury under his left ear. A case was booked against the contractor and his followers under Section 307 IPC, he said.
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He said the police would launch a manhunt for the attackers in Maharashtra. Mr. Vithal said the followers of contractor, around 50 of them overpowered the employees and took away machines.
He denied there were injuries to the revenue employees. However, he agreed that the revenue staff led by Anurag Jayanthi had gone to the spot without police support.