Sand mafia attacks revenue team in Beed

Sand mafia members allegedly assaulted a revenue department team, including a woman official, after it conducted a raid near Ashti town in Maharashtra's Beed district and seized vehicles involved in the illegal mining activity, police said on Thursday.

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The incident took place around 5.45pm on Wednesday, during which the attackers tried to crush an official under a backhoe loader vehicle, but he was rescued by his colleagues in time, the police said, adding that two of the accused have been arrested.

"Acting on a tip-off about illegal mining of sand from the Sina riverbed near Hingani in Ashti taluka, tehsildar Vaishali Patil led a raid with her team members. During the operation, one backhoe loader machine, three tractors, one tractor trolley and 30 brass of sand, collectively worth over Rs51 lakh, were seized," an official said.