In an unprecedented internal crackdown, the Rajasthan Police has exposed deep-rooted collusion between local police officers and illegal sand mining syndicates through a coordinated decoy operation conducted across the state. The operation has led to disciplinary action against 11 station house officers (SHOs), marking one of the most significant internal accountability drives in the force’s history.
The operation, initiated by the Police Headquarters (PHQ), was designed to assess allegations that local police stations were providing protection and logistical support to illegal sand mining operations—an issue that has plagued Rajasthan for years. Acting on the findings, Director General of Police Rajiv Sharma ordered the suspension of five SHOs and directed that six others be removed from active postings and sent to police lines.
A Long-Standing Problem, First Major Internal Exposure
Illegal sand mining has long been a politically and administratively sensitive issue in Rajasthan, frequently surfacing during elections and remaining under judicial scrutiny in both the Rajasthan High Court and the Supreme Court. Despite repeated public complaints and sporadic enforcement drives, allegations of police–mafia nexus persisted, with little evidence of sustained corrective action.
The decoy operation, conducted on December 18 and 19, marked the first time that the police leadership systematically tested its own field formations to identify internal breaches. According to senior officers, undercover teams assessed whether police personnel were facilitating illegal transport, tipping off mining syndicates about enforcement plans, or allowing overloaded dumpers to pass checkpoints unchecked.
The results, officials admitted, were “disturbing but clarifying”.
Public Safety and Environmental Damage
Over the years, illegally mined sand has not only devastated riverbeds and fragile ecosystems across Rajasthan but has also contributed to a breakdown in law and order. Overloaded dumpers operating at high speeds have caused numerous fatalities, while repeated confrontations between mining syndicates and enforcement agencies have triggered violence, road blockades and public unrest.
Several honest police officers, administrative officials and personnel from the mining department have reportedly faced assaults while attempting to stop illegal operations. Entire stretches of riverbeds and hilly terrain have been hollowed out, leaving irreversible environmental damage driven by high-profit margins in the construction supply chain.
Inside the ‘Fixed-Rate’ Protection System
According to vigilance findings, the illegal mining ecosystem functioned through a “fixed-rate” protection arrangement, where local police allegedly ensured safe passage, shared alternative routes to evade checkpoints, and leaked enforcement plans formulated at PHQ.
The decoy operation revealed that some SHOs were effectively working for the mining syndicates rather than the department, undermining both enforcement strategy and institutional credibility.
Officers Booked and Accountability Questions
Among those suspended are SHOs from Shivdaspura (Jaipur), Pisangan (Ajmer), Peeplu (Tonk), Baroni, and Dholpur Kotwali. The six officers sent to police lines include station heads from Gulabpura (Bhilwara), Kunhadi and Nanta (Kota), Lalsot (Dausa), Luni (Jodhpur) and Gangrar (Chittorgarh).
The scale of the exposure has also raised questions about district-level supervision, with the monitoring mechanisms of several Superintendents of Police (SPs) now under internal review.
Signal From the Top
Senior officers say the action sends a clear message that internal complicity will no longer be tolerated. By choosing a decoy-based vigilance model rather than routine inspections, the police leadership aimed to identify structural weaknesses rather than symbolic offenders.
The operation has triggered visible unease within police ranks across the state, but officials argue that restoring public trust requires precisely such hard institutional introspection.
For Rajasthan Police, the episode represents both an admission of systemic failure and a decisive step toward institutional course correction—one that could redefine internal accountability if followed through consistently.
