Chikkamagaluru Police have arrested seven people including senior officers of the Public Works Department on charges of involvement in misuse of 4,000 mineral dispatch permits to transport sand illegally. The arrested include an Executive Engineer, Assistant Executive Engineer, two second divisional assistants, two Group D employees and a contractor. The police have not disclosed the names of the arrested in the press release issued here on Wednesday.
Superintendent of Police K. Annamalai, in the press release, said, police stations at Belthangady, Byndoor, and Kaup had registered cases over the illegal transport of sand. The police during the investigation found that the permits in possession of the accused originated from Chikkamagaluru. The Mines and Geology Department had released them to the PWD for sand transport. However, they were misused by private operators in Udupi district.
Based on a request from the Udupi district police, Chikkamagaluru police conducted raids in the offices of Mines and Geology Department and PWD in Chikkamagaluru on Tuesday. The police learnt that PWD officials gave over 4,000 permits to the accused. Following the raid, the police took the seven into custody and handed them over to the Udupi police for further investigation.
