Two days after Jajpur town RTO Manoj Kumar Behera was crushed to death by a chips laden truck on National Highway-215 near Nuapada Chowk while on duty, sand mafia have made death threats to the Jajpur tehsildar in the district. The sand mafia forcibly took away two trucks which had been seized by the Jajpur tehsildar, Laxmikanta Mishra.

An FIR was filed with the Panikoili police station in this connection and it has also been alleged that there were threats issued to him. As per the police complaint, on being instructed by the district collector, the Jajpur tesildar accompanied by the local Revenue Inspector (RI) went to Madhapur area on Jajpur- Sathipur road to check over loading of sand laden trucks and trucks illegally lifting sand from the Baitarani river on Tuesday afternoon.

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While the tahasil team was checking requisite papers of the sand laden trucks, it found two trucks lack mandatory documents. “While district collector Ranjan Kumar Das was returning to district head quarters town from Vyas Nagar, he found some trucks carry overload of sand on Sathipur- Jajpur road. The collector seized two trucks during his tour and directed me to carry out inspection of overloaded vehicles and trucks carrying smuggled minor minerals yesterday afternoon,” said Jajpur tahasildar Laxmikanta Mishra.

The tehsildar rushed to the site near Madhapur village accompanied by local Revenue Inspector and send the two trucks to the local police station seized by the collector and started checking of the overloaded vehicles.

“While our team was carrying out inspection of overloaded vehicles and trucks carrying illegal minor minerals, we found two over loaded trucks carrying sand without requisite papers. When we seized the duo overloaded sand laden trucks, two mafias came in a SUV and abused us in filthy language,” he said adding they also threatened the tehsildar with dire consequence even if possible to over run truck on him.

The duo had allegedly snatched trucks from the revenue team and fled from the spot. The two have been identified as Pratyush Kumar Kar and Ranjit Kumar Sahoo. “We have filed an FIR in this connection and named both the mafias in the complaint,” he said adding the incident was immediately also reported to the district collector. When contacted, Panikoili police inspector-in-charge Sarat Kumar Patra said a case against the two accused has been registered and investigations are on. The two have absconded, he added.