Crackdown on sand mafia: Pune Rural police register four cases in a month, arrest six racketeers

“Since the first week of August this year, we have registered four separate First Information Reports in connection with illegal sand mining at Indapur police station. Our teams from Indapur police station have till now arrested six persons and search is on for other suspects. Pune Rural police have in the past taken stringent action against organised illegal sand mining. Our local police stations from the areas which witness illegal sand mining conduct meticulous patrolling of the areas and we closely monitor movements. We register cases based on our surveillance or as and when the district administration approaches us with the complaint. The action against illegal excavation and smuggling of sand will continue in the coming days,” said Sudarshan Rathod, Deputy Superintendent of Police for Baramati Division.

Investigations by Pune Rural police have revealed in the past that the illegal sand excavation rackets have multiple criminal activities associated with them. Excavation of sand from riverbeds using illegally operated boats and for smuggling of the excavated sand, trucks operated by criminals are used. Following multiple coordination meetings held in 2020 and 2021, between senior officials from district administration, police, forest department, Regional Transport Office, strategies of crackdown against the illegal sand mining were discussed and are since being executed jointly. Many of these areas are forests, and rampant sand excavation has major effects on ecosystems of this region, officials said.

Two of the four cases of illegal sand mining were registered in the first week of August from Gangawalan and Sardewadi in Indapur while two more were reported from Shingade Vasti in Malwadi area of Indapur. One of the four cases was registered based on complaints from district administration and three others were registered by police on behalf of the government.

Probe has revealed that organised gangs of sand excavators use two types of boats. One type is referred to as suction boats, which have suction pumps attached to them. These boats dredge the sand from riverbeds through suction. This sand, containing water, is then transferred to larger boats made of synthetic material, which go to the riverbanks to load the trucks parked at a distance from banks. These trucks then illegally transport the sand to their destination. Police have found out that the people who use boats and excavate sand are mostly migrants from other states. In 2020-21, the police and district administration had together destroyed over 80 boats which were seized from the racketeers. Many of these operations were conducted in very high risk situations.

Police had in the past faced several challenges in these actions. In many cases the trucks seized by the police were stolen by racketeers and in some other cases they were bought back by the same racketeers in auctions. To avoid all these issues, authorities had decided that the seized sand will be sold off to contractors of government projects at government rates. Along with catching the illegally transported sand, joint teams had also focused on cracking down at the origin of the illegal sand mining. Pune police also regularly coordinate with police forces in neighbouring Solapur and Ahmednagar district as racketeers may cross over district borders to evade arrest.