4 more govt officials from Satara and Sangli attacked

Cases of attacks on government officials by persons running illegal operations trickled in from Satara and Sangli on Friday.

The police arrested three members of the sand-mining mafia on Thursday night, who allegedly tried to run a tractor over a talathi and kotwal in Tasgaon taluka. Shirgaon village talathi, Shrinivas Patil (56), and kotwal Santosh Sagare (26), both residents of Tasgaon, escaped unhurt.

Patil later filed a complaint with the Tasgaon police station and suspects Balaji Pandarinath Yamgar, Umaji Pandharinath Yamgar and Vikas Bhagwan Chavan were arrested. Patil told DNA that the suspects were illegally ferrying sand in the tractor from
Shirgaon.    

“We started chasing them on a two-wheeler. At Visapur village, we overtook them, but instead of stopping they tried to run us over. They also pelted stones at us,’’ he said.

Two employees, including an assistant engineer of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL), were allegedly assaulted by a group of villagers in Satara on Thursday when they had gone to probe power theft at Sartale village in Jawali taluka.

Assistant engineer Prashant Gade and driver Sambhaji Kharat sustained minor injuries. The police have lodged a case at the Kudal police station, but no arrests have been made so far.

Gade, recently transferred to Jawali taluka, had received a complaint of electricity theft in Sartale village. When he saw how power was being stolen by overhead wires to run agricultural water pumps, a few villagers attacked them with stones and sticks.