CUTTACK: Government Railway Police (GRP) on Saturday arrested two persons for illegally transporting sand from Cuttack to Uttar Pradesh through a train without valid permissions and documents.Acting on a tip-off, a team of district administration led by Collector Nirmal Mishra had raided Nergundi station, on the outskirts of Cuttack, on Friday night and found that huge amount of sand was being illegally transported to Uttar Pradesh.When the team reached Nergundi station, at least11 wagons were laden with the sand. However, during questioning it was revealed that the miscreants had plans to transport 3800 tonnes of sand in 59 wagons of the train to Uttar Pradesh. The sand was brought in trucks from a sand quarry located in CDA sector 11."The persons had not taken any permission from administration for transporting the sand through wagons to Uttar Pradesh, which is necessary as per law. Even they failed to produce any permission granted to them by Railways for such transportation," said the Collector.When the team arrived, the truck drivers, labourers fled away and only two persons, overseeing the sand loading and transportation work, were nabbed. The two accused have been identified as Sanjay and A K Sahoo. Both were working for the agency which had taken lease of a sand quarry in CDA sector 11.Surprisingly, even the railway officials of Nergundi station expressed ignorance about the incident. "A show-cause notice will be issued to the station master on the matter as how come he was unaware of such illegal work," said local tehsildar, Abinash Rout.Meanwhile, railway police have registered a case under section 21(1) of Mines and Minerals(Development and Regulation )Act against the two persons and started its probe."We will probe the case thoroughly and find out the real miscreants behind the crime. Besides, we will also investigate if any railway official had any role in it," said SP Railways(Cuttack), Sanjay Kaushal Meanwhile, the administration has seized the entire consignment of sand. "We will auction the seized sand," said collector. Mishra said that they are ascertaining the cost of the consignment.

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