Ropar, November 13
Two days after arresting mining contractor Rakesh Kumar Chaudhary for alleged illegal mining, the district police have registered a case on the complaint of a stone crusher owner, Dalbir Singh, of alleged extortion against six members of Ilaqa Sangharsh Committee.
Dalbir Singh alleged that some of the committee members have extorted more than Rs 2 crore from stone crusher owners.
Ilaqa Sangharsh Committee was formed by local residents of several villages, including Bhalan, Bhanam and Taraf Majari near Nangal, to oppose illegal mining in their area. The accused, identified as Tikka Yashvir Chand, advocate Vishal Saini, Hardev Singh, Jarnail Singh, Surinder Singh and Jasswinder Singh were also on forefront in protest against the desilting of Swan river bed by state government near Bhallan village a few days ago.
On Friday, an audio clip purportedly of conversation between the complainant and one of the committee members advocate Vishal Saini had gone viral on social media containing a discussion over extortion by the committee members.
Yesterday, a large number of stone crusher owners held a press conference and levelled allegations of extortion against the six accused.
In his complaint, Dalbir Singh stated that he has a stone crusher near Algran village and he used to lift raw mining material from legally alotted quarries of Sansowal, Bhallan and Taraf Majari. He alleged that the accused accompanied by more than a dozen unidentified people used to intercept their vehicles loaded with material and threatened to not allow them to ferry the material till they were paid.
In the complaint, Dalbir Singh alleged that the accused used to collect at least Rs one lakh from each of the stone crusher in area per month.
Nangal SHO Danish Veer Singh said the police have started investigation after registering a case under Sections 384 and 385 of the IPC against the accused.
