AP: Two forest employees suspended in precious stone illegal mining incident

Forest beat officer Lovakumar and striking force employee Mahesh have been suspended in connection with large scale illegal mining

Visakhapatnam: Forest beat officer Lovakumar and striking force employee Mahesh have been suspended in connection with large scale illegal mining of semi-precious stones in Mallavaram area of Golugonda mandal in the agency area here.

The illegal mining operations were held on Friday close to the forest base camp when the officials –the Forest Range Officer as well as the beat officer were on leave. It is said that heavy earth movers were deployed to decamp with semi-precious stones worth several crores of rupees.

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The explanation offered by the forest officials in the case was far from convincing and the incident also saw both the ruling party and opposition leaders engaged in a blame game.