UDAIPUR: Illegal sandstone excavation is causing immense damage to the ecosystem in Mewat region as the sandstone mafia have been scooping out massive volumes of the mineral from the Aravali ranges.The illegal activity in Roopwas-Bayana blocks of Bharatpur district had been going on unchecked for years, but now, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has stepped in to expose the unholy ties between the authorities and the miscreants. This is the first time, where the ACB has taken up an issue related to environmental concern and attempting to clampdown the collusion. The ACB has also sought a report from the forest and mining departments asking for an assessment of the damage caused to the forest cover in the Mewat region due to the illegal activity and loss caused to the state exchequer.Three people, including a police inspector, a constable and a hotelier, have been arrested while many more are expected to fall in the net in the coming weeks, sources claim.“Illegal sandstone mining has caused not only huge loss to the state treasury but also environmental degradation as a result of the collusion between government officials and mafia. Our investigation has revealed that a large network of officials right from the block level administration to the forest, mining, RTO and police departments were being benefited of the illegal mining activities. We are considering to widen our scope of investigation to pin down one and all who are responsible for the forest destruction in the area,” V K Singh, inspector general (ACB) told TOI.In November last, the ACB had been tipped of police patronage to sandstone mafia by cops of Roopwas police station. It came to light that the mafia members paid a hefty amount on monthly basis to the cops including the SHO Arpan Chaudhary and his subordinates.Surveillance revealed that the illegal mining business ran over crores. "Evidences prove that the mafia paid as much as Rs 10 lakh a month to the officials for their support in the illegal activity. As per a rough estimate, the mafia was scooping out 10 times the sandstone loads than they actually had the permit for. Records in form of vouchers prove that bribe money was paid which has been categorised under office expenditures by the royalty staff," Thakur ChandraSheel, the investigating officer told TOI. A police constable Mohan Singh and agent Rinku had been instrumental in churning out the bribe money from royalty contractors and those who refused to pay the bribe amount were intimidated and threatened of been getting hooked in fabricated cases.Through technical surveillance including call interceptions, the ACB came to know that SHO Chaudhary kept the bribe money in safe custody at a hotel named Raj Palace, situated on Ghana Road which was owned by one of his close friend Yashpal Chaudhary. The SHO had invested the bribe money in several businesses, including real estate, crusher equipment at a site near Haryana border.

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