In a sensational incident, teak smugglers in Brahmanwada Thadi village of Maharashtra launched an attack on the local crime branch of the police that had come to arrest them. A policeman was seriously injured in the incident and is currently undergoing treatment at a private hospital. The police have arrested 6 teak smugglers- Sheikh Majid Shaikh Aziz (55), Mohammad Sadiq Sheikh Israel (47), Mohammed Fazil Mohammad Sadiq (19), Mohammad Asif Sheikh Younes (19), Mohammad Shahzad Mohammad Sadiq (20) and Naushad Ali Mohammad Ali (22) in this regard.
On Sunday, 7th July 2019, at around 10 pm the local crime branch squad went to Saudagarapura village of Brahmanwada Thadi village to initiate action against the teak smugglers. Assistant police inspector of rural police crime branch, Mukund Kawade, along with his colleagues, saw a suspicious vehicle moving past him. He decided to pursue it along with his colleagues. The vehicle stopped at a place, and when the police personnel surrounded the vehicle, at that very instance 12 to 14 people attacked them and flogged them with rods and sticks. Police officer Naik Gajendra Thakre was injured in the attack.
Following this attack, the police arrested the six assailants and four managed to flee from the situation. The police have recovered smuggled wood from the vehicle. Against all the ten accused, cases were filed under Section 353, 332, 294, 143, 147, 148, 14, 9, 186 of the Indian Penal Code. Smuggled wood worth Rs. 46,155 was also seized from the house of one of the accused. About a total of 1 lakh of smuggled wood has been seized by the police.
The four accused- Mohammed Nasir Sheikh Amir, Mohammed Javed Shaikh Hamid, Sheikh Hafiz Sheikh Amir, Mohammed Afgh Sheikh Amir (all residents of Brahmanwada Thadi) are on the run. The tensions in the region have heightened after the incident and hence a heavy deployment of police personnel has been ordered by the Brahmanwadi Police station in-charge Sachin Singh Pardeshi.
