A forest guard was killed while a forest ranger and other guards were injured when accomplices of local mining mafia attacked them near Tenua forest of Maci forest range in Raipur police station area of Sonebhadra district on Friday late night.SP Sonebhadra Salman Taj Patil said that the main accused, Laxmikant Yadav, had been arrested after an FIR was lodged in this connection while search for others was underway.On being tipped off, divisional forest officer of Sonebhadra, Sanjiv Kumar Singh rushed forest ranger BP Singh along with a team of forest guards to Padari Tenua forest in Machi range. When this team raided the forest, Yadav and his accomplices were loading stones on tractor trolleys after illegal mining, said forest officials. On seeing the forest ranger and his team, Yadav and his accomplices tried to escape. However, the team of forest ranger succeeded in stopping one tractor.The forest ranger asked forest guards, including Mohan Maurya and Ram Pukar, to board the tractor and reach their office. But, when the tractor was passing through Ratua village, Yadav and his goons intercepted it and attacked the duo. the uncontrolled tractor then fell into a roadside ditch. In the meantime, the forest ranger along with other team members reached there. On seeing them, the assailants attacked them and fled from the scene.On receiving information, Raipur cops reached there and rushed the injured persons to the local hospital. However, Maurya died on way to the hospital.On Saturday morning, SP Sonebhadra along with the DFO and other officials reached the incident site. The SP said that on the complaint of DFO Raipur, an FIR was filed against Yadav and his unidentified accomplices.He added that police teams were conducting raids and the accused will be nabbed soon.

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