Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (UM/MS)

Kundapur, Feb 7: Bhoobalan, assistant commissioner (AC) of Kundapur sub-division, and Brahmavar police on Wednesday, February 7 raided eight locations at Handady near Brahmavar where illegal sand mining was being carried on.

Most of the owners who were carrying out the mining did have authorized licence for the same. However, due to technical reasons, their licences were cancelled.

Acting on definite information about illegal sand mining, Bhoobalan raided the spot along with the police personnel and confiscated 25 boats, 9 tippers and arrested 61 labourers, including natives of Uttar Pradesh.

Ten of the owners, namely gram panchayat member Thimmappa Shetty, Karunakar Shetty, Basava, Sadashiva, Sarvotham, Dinesh Salian, Raviraj, Prasanna, Philip Dias escaped. The police are looking for them.

Some of the boats which were laden with sand sank due to the heavy load of the sand.

Srikanth, circle inspector, Brahmavar, Madhu, police sub-inspector, Brahmavar police station, Mahadevappa, an officer of the mining department and other officials took part in the operation.