Sand mafia busted, seven arrested

KOCHI: The police on Monday busted a major sand mafia, whose members forged the seals of the Mining and Geological Department and made duplicate passes for illegal extraction of sand from the Periyar.The police have arrested seven persons from different parts of the district. The arrested are Bijoy, 37, Binu, 34, Muralidharan Nair, 62, Sijo Papachan, 26, Sinoj, 28, Robin Xavier, 24, and Manoj, 29. Manoj was the driver of the lorry which was being used for transporting the sand to Thiruvananthapuram. Biju, 32, the licensee whose pass issued by the Mining and Geological Department was forged, is absconding.According to the police, the mafia used the banks of the Periyar on the Perumbavoor-Aluva route for illegally extracting sand. The police team led by Sub-inspector M A Latheef had arrested Manoj on Friday, for illegally transporting sand. His pass, on checking, turned out to be forged, leading to further interrogation. “We have found that the pass was issued to extract 15 loads of sand every week. But they duplicated the pass and have been illegally operating for the past one year,” a police official said. The investigation has revealed that the forgery of the seals was done with the assistance of Muralidharan Nair, who was a retired official of the Forests Department. “The forest official has been operating in Perumbavoor by forging the seals of various departments. The mafia, with his assistance, made duplicate seals of the Mining and Geological Department. Muralidharan Nair had an office in Perumbavoor which has been raided and sealed by the police,” the official said. The police suspect that Muralidharan Nair had also forged the seals of Kerala University and the passport authority.The police said that Bijoy and the other accused were earlier caught by the Sales Tax officials in a similar case of illegal sand mining in Angamaly a few years ago. They had been fined Rs 6 lakh then, and Bijoy faced  severe financial problems after the case.However, the gang later shifted its base to Ernakulam and re-started its activities. They have been transporting sand to Thiruvananthapuram, where it was being sold at exorbitant prices. The seven accused were produced before the Judicial Magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.