Nagpur: Oil mafia attacks policemen with axes

Nagpur: Barely a week after the fatal attack on Yashwant Sonawane, an additional collector at Manmad in Nashik district, there was an attack on policemen at Umred in Nagpur.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Sudhakar Palandurkar and four of his men were raiding kerosene dens in rural Nagpur when a mob of nearly a 100 people attacked them.

The incident clearly shows that since Yashwant Sonawane's gruesome killing on January 25th nothing has changed on the ground in Maharashtra.

''They attacked me with a lasso and stones. Two people had axes. One person even swung the axe, but because our officer was alert and moved behind, he was saved. They attacked us with whatever they could find - sticks, stones, bricks," said Sudhakar Palandurkar, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Nagpur.

The women who were part of the mob are said to be linked to Pannalal Rajput, a local goon.

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Despite the attack, the police seized 250 litres of kerosene meant for ration shops which was being sold on the black market and used to adulterate other fuels.

''I had received information that a Pardhi leader named Pannalal Rajput keeps kerosene at his place and illegally sells it," said Sudhakar Palandurkar, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Nagpur.

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This latest incident is another sign of the state's failure to protect its own officials even those who are a part of its latest crackdown on the oil mafia.