Pune: Tehsildar's driver killed in hit-and-run by sand mafia

Pune: A police bandobast arranged for the Director General of Maharashtra Police Praveen Dixit proved to be handy to chase down two men involved in a hit-and-run on the Pune-Solapur Highway bypass.

Anil Jaysinh Kale

On Thursday night, a government employee died after two men, linked to the sand mafia, dashed into the scooter he was riding. The men who were in the Tavera attempted to flee but were chased down for two kilomteres by the police officers patrolling the area for the bandobast.

The arrest comes in the face of recent raids conducted on the mafia, which illegally dredges sand from the river banks, using mechanical boats.

Anil Jaysinh Kale (55), who worked as a driver for tehsildar Suryankant Yewale, has been identified as the deceased. The incident took place on Thursday, around 7 pm, when Kale was driving back home. After the Tavera crashed into him, Kale was rushed to the hospital, but was declared rbought dead.

The police have arrested Sachin Pandurang Mane and Navnath Kisan Ekad, who are from Bhatnimgoan in Indapur. A case of murder, rash driving and drinking under the influence of liquor has been registered against them. Inspector Madhukar Shinde in-charge of Indapur police station who is also investigating the case said, "For the past two months, the revenue department has been conducting various raids and penalising the sand mafia. Tahsildar Yewale and Kale would often visit the sand mafia's secret operations and trap them. Yewale has received death threats by Ekad and his family members."

Yewale said he and Kale had had a successful run of getting the sand mafia caught red-handed. These were done by the duo, without police accompanying them, so that they wouldn't alert the mafia. "Once we got a tip-off, we would go to conduct a raid and trap members of the sand mafia. Kale had played a vital role in helping me with this in the past eight months."