Tahsildar escapes bid on life by illegal sand miners

The Thiru Vaigundam tahsildar narrowly escaped a bid on his life when a couple of lorries, which he tried to check for illegally mined sand, tried to run him over at Morapanadu near Thiru Vaigundam here on Friday.

Recounting the incident to Express, tahsildar Madasamy said that after he recieved a tip-off that sand was illegally being mined from the Thamirabarani river bed, he went to the spot with a team of officials, including the VAO.

When they reached the spot, sand was being loaded onto two lorries, the drivers of which, upon seeing the officials, immediately started the vehicles and parked them behind some sand dunes in a bid to conceal them.

The tahsildar initially thought that the vehicles were there in connection with the construction of a check dam.

However, when he asked a police official to check the lorries parked behind the dunes, the drivers suddenly started the vehicles. When the tahsildar tried to stop the vehicles, the lorries sped off, almost running him over — Madasamy got out of their way in the nick of time — in the process.

Based on the tahsildar’s complaint, a man hunt was launched for four persons. Inspector Sridhar said the culprits would be booked under the Goondas Act.