Sand miners flee from spot, cops seize lorries and earthmovers

The Sriperumbudur police received a tip-off that a group are mining sand at night from Venkadu lake in Pillaipakkam village near Sriperumbudur. Following that, Sriperumbudur ASP Karthikeyan formed a special team to nab them. On Monday night, the police went for a raid at the lake but the group, who were mining sand from the lake, escaped from the spot after spotting the police at a distance.

The police said that the gang abandoned their vehicles and added that there were nearly 10 men. The lorries were half-filled with sand and they were using the earthmovers to mine the sand.

Sources said the factories which are functioning in the locality are not buying sand for their construction work and instead they are mining it from the lake. The police said that a search is on to nab the suspects.

The Chennai police seized three lorries laden with sand from Adyar river on early Tuesday morning. The vehicles were seized as they did not possess required documents to transport the sand, collected from the desilting area in Adyar river mouth. Three lorries were intercepted during on Greenways Road and seized by the Abhiramapuram police. Later it was found that the lorries belonged to the Public Works Department, which was engaged in desilting works. Officials from PWD later held talks with the police team requesting the release of the sand-laden vehicles.