Sand smugglers try to mow down officials, lorry seized after 26-km chase in Thanjavur

TIRUCHY: A gang of sand smugglers allegedly attempted to murder revenue department officials by ramming their lorry on the government vehicle late on Tuesday night. However, refusing to cow down to the intimidation, the officials chased them for about 26 km and secured the lorry but the gang escaped under the cover of darkness.

Papanasam tahsildar Senthil Kumar, deputy tahsildar Prabhu, revenue inspector Kamali and VAO Suresh went to Raramuthiraikottai near Papanasam. When they stopped at the Raramuthiraikottai VAO office at 7 pm, a sand lorry came by that road at a high speed. Seeing the government vehicle stopped on the road, the smugglers reportedly feared that the officials were waiting to catch them. Hence, instead of slowing down, they hit the government vehicle and sped away. The officials were outside the vehicle when this happened.

The officials immediately began chasing the lorry. Realising that they were in trouble, the gang tried to evade them by randomly driving through several roads but the officials persisted. Finally, after chasing for about 26 km, which lasted more than an hour, the officials caught up with the lorry and intercepted it at Kulichapattu village.

“When we were nearing Kulichapattu, the driver found it difficult to move the lorry as cattle occupied most of the road. He then jumped off the lorry even before it came to a complete halt and escaped on a two-wheeler that was following us. Deputy tahsildar Prabhu climbed onto the lorry and stopped it,” said tahsildar Senthil Kumar.

A team from Ammapettai police station came to the spot and seized the vehicle. During the investigation, they found that the vehicle was from Mariamman Koil Street in Thanjavur. A search is on for the suspects.