Amresh Parab
Panaji
Goa police have been unable to trace the accused or find evidence in 19% of the cases related to illegal extraction or transportation of sand registered at different police stations in the state in the last three years.
According to police data, 99 cases of illegal extraction or transportation of sand have been registered in the state from 2023 to 2025. Police have filed a closure report in connection with 23 such cases.
As they were unable to find the accused or obtain any evidence, ‘A final’ report was submitted by police before the courts concerned in 19 cases. Police filed ‘C final’ report in connection with four such cases. A police officer said that a ‘C final’ report is filed when an incident is neither true nor false or it arises from a mistake of fact. A mistake of fact occurs when a person acts under an honest, reasonable misunderstanding of a situation, believing circumstances to be true when they are not.
Eleven cases are under investigation, while 64 are pending trial before the courts concerned and in one case, the accused was discharged.
Police registered 50 cases of illegal extraction or transportation of sand in 2023. The number decreased to 17 in 2024, while a total of 32 such cases were registered in 2025.
It may be noted that in October last year, two labourers, natives of Bihar, allegedly engaged in sand extraction activity, were seriously injured after they were shot at on the bank of Tiracol River in Pernem taluka.
Members of the Opposition had raised concerns stating that incidents of lawlessness were on the rise in the state, as the shooting incident was believed to be linked to sand mafia. In data provided to the government, police, however, ruled out the sand mafia angle, stating that no such facts had come forth.
Police said that an FIR was registered at the Pernem police station on the charges of attempt to murder as well as under the Arms Act and five individuals were arrested. Police had also recovered the unlicensed weapon that was reportedly used in the crime.
In a joint raid conducted recently, authorities seized two canoes engaged in illegal extraction of sand along River Mandovi in Akhada, Tiswadi. Officials from the district administration, mines department, coastal security police and Old Goa police had conducted the raid. Workers had jumped into the river and fled during the raid, leaving the canoes behind, according to sources.
