Four held for assaulting mining officials in Sohna

Gurugram: Police on Thursday arrested four suspects who allegedly attacked a team of mining officials during a raid at Sancholi village in Sohna.

The eight-member team headed by mining officer Anil Kumar was allegedly attacked by a dozen men carrying sticks when they went to the village on Wednesday as part of a drive to check illegal sand mining, Gurugram police said.

Police said the suspects attacked the team members and the mining officer suffered a fracture in his hand in the incident. The suspects fled from the spot, leaving an earthmoving machine behind, after the team members raised an alarm. The official vehicle of the team members was also damaged in the attack, police added.

As per investigators, the arrested suspects were identified as Rafiq, Shahrukh, Ikram and Irfan — all residents of Sohna.

Mining officer Kumar said they had received a tip-off after which a team of eight members raided the village around 4.15pm on Wednesday.

“We found a JCB machine in the village that was being used for illegal sand mining. We seized the machine and were returning to our office in Gurugram when 12 men on motorbikes surrounded us,” Kumar said.

Kumar said the suspects vandalised their vehicle and broke its windshield.

A case was registered against the 12 suspects under Section 147 (punishment for rioting), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 186 (voluntarily obstructs any public servant), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 427 (mischief and thereby causes loss) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Sohna police station on Wednesday, police said.

Varun Kumar Dahiya, assistant commissioner of police (crime) said, “We had registered a case on Wednesday and have identified the suspects. We have arrested four of them and our teams will nab the other suspects at the earliest.”