FIR against Cong leaders for taking away seized vehicles

A case has been registered against two Congress leaders and their supporters in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district for forcibly taking away tractors seized in connection with illegal sand mining.

No arrests have been made so far, the police said.

The First Information Report registered on Thursday night named Congress' Raigarh district president (SC cell) Ghanshyam Manhar, head of it Kosir development block Vishnu Chandra and eight others including owner of the vehicles Umesh Mahilange.

Manhar and others stormed into Kosir police station on Wednesday, created a ruckus, misbehaved with police personnel and drove off with the tractors, an official said.

Manhar is the husband of former Congress MLA Padma Manhar.

On January 22, a flying squad of the mining department had seized three tractortrolleys, two of them sand laden, which were carrying illegally mined sand from Singhanpur on the banks of the Mahanadi river in Sarangarh area, he said.

The FIR was registered under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 341 (wrongful restraint), 294 (obscene acts or words in public), 447 (criminal trespass) and 379 (theft) and further probe was on, the police official added.