Keonjhar, Dec 1 (LocalWire) Five persons were arrested and a huge quantity of timber seized during a raid on an illegal saw mill at Santarapur under Ghatagaon police station of Keonjhar district on Saturday, official sources said.
The arrested were identified as Ranjan Parida, Dushmant Nayak, Ranjan Nayak, Amulya Nayak and Surath Nayak.
However, the main accused and the owner of the saw mill Md Dowad Khan fled away from the spot, the sources said.
The joint raid was conducted by the forest department and the police in which Divisional Forest Officer, Santosh Joshi, ACF Ghanashyam Mohanta, DSP Subodh Mallick and over three platoon force were involved.
Meanwhile, after the raid, the villagers attacked the squad by throwing stones in which two forest department employees were injured and a police vehicle was damaged, said Mohanta.
Beside a forest case for illegal saw mill, an FIR was also lodged against the villagers for attack on the team, he said adding the department had received several complaints about illegal timber smuggling at Santarapur village.
LocalWire
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